i 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

CERF  LIBRARY 

PRESENTED  BY 

REBECCA  CERF  '02 

IN  THE  NAMES  OF 

CHARLOTTE  CERF  '95 

MARCEL  E.  CERF  '97 

BARRY  CERF  '02 


THE    MISERIES    OF 


FO    H  I 


A  CELESTIAL  FUNCTIONARY. 


TRANSLATED  FHOM  THE  FRENCH  OF 

FRANCISQUE  SARCEY, 

BY   H.   R.   H. 


CHICAGO  : 

JANSEN,  McCLURG  &  COMPANY. 
1883. 


COPYRIGHT 

BY  JAN3EN,   McCLURG   &  CO. 
A.  D.  1883. 


Stereotyped  and  Printed 

by  the 
Chicago  Legal  Mews  Co. 


/  f?3 
PREFACE. 


This  story  comes  straight  from   China 

like  the  vases  and  images  with  which  we 

* 

decorate  our  mantels.  The  manuscript 
was  found  by  a  brave  French  officer  in  the 
sack  of  an  imperial  palace,  and  was  brought 
home  in  his  valise  as  one  of  the  curiosities 
of  that  remarkable  country.  The  officer 
sent  it  to  a  number  of  gentlemen,  learned 
in  Chinese,  all  of  whom  translated  it  at 
sight  with  the  greatest  ease.  It  is  true  that 
no  two  of  them  made  it  read  alike;  but 
that  matters  little.  These  slight  differences 
are  of  frequent  occurrence  among  the  pro- 
found scholars  who  have  studied  Chinese 
in  our  colleges.  From  these  various  ver- 
sions I  have  chosen  the  one  which  seemed 
to  me  the  most  diverting,  and  now  give  it 
to  the  public. 

3 

M566951 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

I.  In  Which  it  is  Decided  that  Fo  Hi's  Son  Shall 

be  a  Mandarin 7 

II.  Young  Fo  Hi  Enters  College         ...           14 

III.  An  Edifying  Conversation          .         .        .         .19 

IV.  Ycung  Fp  Hi  Graduates  with  all  the  Honors  25 
V.  The  King  of  the  Future  in  a  Quandary      .         .       29 

VI.  In  Which  Young  Fo  Hi  Enters  upon  Public  Life     44 

VII.  Fo  Hi  Starts  out  Splendidly       .         .         .         .52 

VIII.  A  Frightful  Catastrophe          ....           62 

IX.  The  Tide  Turns         .         .         .         .         *                7 1 

X.  The  Story  of  the  Shabby  Old  Man          .         .           89 

XL  Some  Good  Resolutions     .....       99 

XII.  How  Fo  Hi  Kept  his  Position         .         .         .         103 

XIII.  A  Famous  Lawsuit     .         .         .         .         .         .     115 

XIV.  The   Oath  of  Allegiance         .         .         .         .         119 
XV.  The  Same  Subject  Continued      .         .         .         .13$ 

XVI.  Fo  Hi  Vents  his  Spleen  on  the  Grocer's  Boy  141 

XVII.  A  Family  Reunion  ...                  .     153 

(5) 


6  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

XVIII.  In  Which  Old  Li-jou-lin  Turns  up  Again     .         164 

XIX.  In   Which  a  New  Character  Appears   on   the 

Scene 178 

XX.  FoHi  Finds  Himself  Bad  Company       .         .188 

XXI.  What  Fo  Hi  Thinks  of  the  News         .         .         200 

XXII.  The  Happy  Le-hi-to 206 

XXIII.  Shall  I  Then  Get  Married?        .         .         .         215 

XXIV.  In  Which  Fo  Hi  Meets  with  a  New  Adventure  236 
XXV.  In  Which  Fo  Hi  is  Not  Executed        .         .        246 

Epilogue  and  Decalogue        .         .»        .         .251 


THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 


CHAPTER  I. 

IN    WHICH     IT     IS     DECIDED    THAT     FO     Hi's    SON 
SHALL     BE    A    MANDARIN. 

"WAHTEVER  will  become  of  us  with  a  third 
daughter  on  our  hands  ? "  said  Mrs.  Fo  Hi, 
abruptly,  to  her  husband. 

"A  daughter !  "  answered  Mr.  Fo  Hi,  with 
becoming  dignity,  "  you  don't  know  what  you 
are  talking  about,  my  good  woman.  Why 
should  it  be  a  girl  rather  than  a  boy  ? " 

"  Because  "— 

"Because   what?" 

"  Because   I   am   sure   of   it." 

"That  is  the  way  women  reason  in  China, 
(7) 


8  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  ///, 

is  it  ?  Well,  for  my  part,  dearest  soul  of 
my  eyes,  I  don't  pretend  to  be  certain  that 
it  won't  be  so.  The  wise  man  is  never 
certain  of  anything.  But  I  think  it  will  be 
a  boy." 

"And   why   do   you   think   so  ? " 

"  I  think  so  for  the  simple  reason  that  I 
do  think  so." 

"What  a  difference  there  is,  to  be  sure! 
But  may  the  Great  Changhti  hear  you,  my 
dear.  A  boy  would  be  just  the  thing  for 
us.  We  are  both  young  yet,  but  twenty 
years  from  now  we  shall  begin  to  grow  old, 
and  it  will  soon  be  time  for  us  to  step  aside. 
We  can  then  give  up  the  business,  and  our 
son  will  succeed  us  just  as  you  succeeded 
your  father." 

"  What !  My  son  a  tradesman  !  My  son 
sell  rice,  and  pepper,  and  spices !  A  de- 
scendant of  Fo  Hi!  Are  you  dreaming, 
Madame  ?  " 


FO  EPS  SON  A  MANDARIN.  9 

"  Well,  and  why  not  ?  Haven't  we  been 
selling  rice  and  spices  all  our  lives?  And 
aren't  we  still  selling  them  ?  We  are  mak- 
ing a  good  living,  and  every  year  are  laying 
up  a  few  taels  for  our  girls.  We  receive  all 
the  attention  in  the  neighborhood  which 
is  usually  shown  to  people  who  pay  their 
bills  promptly.  Everybody  bows  to  me  in  the 
street,  and  our  acquaintances  are  all  respect- 
able people,  like  ourselves,  who  call  in  for  a 
quiet  evening  over  a  cup  of  tea  or  a  glass 
of  rice  wine.  We  have  no  quarrels  with 
anybody,  and  are  perfectly  independent,  so 
that  when  the  day's  accounts  are  made  up 
and  our  girls  are  in  bed,  we  have  nothing 
to  do  but  to  go  soundly  to  sleep.  What 
more  do  you  want  for  your  son,  I  should 
like  to  know?1' 

"  I  want  my  son  to  be  something  in  the 
world." 


io  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HL 

"We  are  nothing',  then,  I  suppose.  Is  that 
what  you  mean  ? " 

"That's  just  it,  Mrs.  Fo  Hi;  we  are  noth- 
ing, and  it  makes  me  mad  to  think  of  it. 
Every  week  the  Governor  gives  his  recep- 
tion, but  have  we  ever  been  invited  ? 
Haven't  you  as  fine  a  face  and  as  pretty  a 
complexion  and  as  small  feet  as  the  women 
whom  he  does  invite  ?  When  the  Emperor, 
Son  of  Heaven,  passes  through  the  town, 
will  we  be  admitted  to  his  presence  to  gaze 
upon  his  august  countenance  ?  Do  we  ever 
have  a  reserved  seat  at  the  public  cere- 
monies? You  know  how  handsome  that  cap 
of  yellow  silk  is,  and  how  much  it  cost  me. 
Well,  have  I  the  privilege  of  putting  a  coral 
button  on  it,  even  as  small  as  a  nut  ?  And 
how,  I  should  like  to  know,  is  one  to  live 
without  a  button  on  his  cap  ?  I  am  deter- 
mined that  my  son  shall  have  one  on  his 
cap,  at  any  rate.  The  Governor  shall  receive 


FO  HPS  SON  A  MANDARIN.  n 

him,  and  what  is  better,  he  shall  himself  be 
a  Governor.  Just  think  of  that,  Mrs.  Fo  Hi ! 
Our  son  a  Governor,  and  talking  with  Min- 
isters just  as  I  am  talking  with  you!  How 
much  better  that  will  be  than  weighing  out 
pepper  and  spices !  " 

And  Mr.  Fo  Hi  pulled  his  silk  night-cap 
proudly  down  over  his  ears.  But  Mrs.  Fo 
Hi  shook  her  head  and  said: 

"  People  who  can  sell  pepper  can  get  along 
without  Ministers.  I  would  rather  be  a  minis- 
ter in  my  own  house  than  dance  attendance 
upon  other  people." 

"How  silly  all  that  kind  of  talk  is!  I 
tell  you  my  son  shall  be  a  Minister,  and 
people  shall  dance  attendance  upon  him." 

Mrs.  Fo  Hi  sighed  but  said  nothing,  for 
she  was  a  Chinese  woman  of  excellent  sense. 
And  it  was  not  long  before  the  prosperous 
couple  fell  asleep  under  their  orange- colored 
coverlids  worked  with  numerous  birds  of 


12  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HL 

paradise.  But  their  dreams  on  that  memo- 
rable night  were  very  different.  Mrs.  Fo  Hi 
dreamed  that  some  good  genius  had  taken 
her  up  on  a  high  mountain,  which  turned 
cut  to  be  a  mountain  of  first-class  pepper. 
There  she  was,  selling  the  pepper  to  her 
customers,  and  all  the  time  sneezing  tremen- 
dously. But  Mr.  Fo  Hi,  meanwhile,  saw 
distinctly  a  bird  of  paradise  with  a  splendid 
yellow  cap  on  his  head,  around  which 
sparkled  thousands  of  buttons  brighter  than 
the  sun.  The  bird  flapped  his  wings  and 
rose  high  up  in  the  air,  where  he  sat  down 
on  a  Mandarin's  chair  and  crossed  his  legs 
in  a  very  dignified  manner.  Then  with  a 
friendly  wave  of  his  wmg  he  asked  Mr.  Fo 
Hi  to  take  the  place  at  his  side.  But  just 
as  that  gentleman  was  rising  to  his  feet  in  a 
state  of  unutterable  delight  he  was  awakened 
by  a  vigorous  sneeze  from  his  wife. 

"  God  bless  you,  my  dear,"  he  said  to  her, 


FO  HI'S  SON  A  MANDARIN.  13 

V 

cheerfully;  "  dreams  don't  deceive.  My  son 
will  certainly  be  a  Minister." 

"  That's  just  the  reason  why  he  will  have 
to  be  a  tradesman,"  replied  the  good  lady. 

And  thereupon  the  dispute  broke  out  again 
with  new  vigor. 

Ah  !  marriage  is  a  fine    institution. 


CHAPTER  II. 

YOUNG  FO  HI  ENTERS  COLLEGE. 

AT  last  the  happiness  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fo 
Hi  was  crowned  by  the  birth  of  the  boy  whom 
they  expected.  When  he  had  reached  the  age 
of  ten  years,  the  first  degree  of  life  according 
to  Celestial  ideas,  his  father  determined  to 
take  him  to  the  Forest  of  Pencils.  This  is 
the  name  which  the  Chinese  in  their  poet- 
ical language  give  to  their  colleges.  Mrs. 
Fo  Hi  immediately  reported  this  resolution 
to  a  certain  bonze*  to  whom  she  was  in 
the  habit  of  confiding  her  husband's  business 
as  well  as  her  own.  This  worthy  gentleman 
without  a  moment's  delay  rushed  over  to  Fo 
Hi's  mansion  in  a  state  of  great  excitement 
and  said: 


*A  Buddhist  priest. 

(14) 


YOUNG  FO  HI  ENTERS  COLLEGE.  15 

"  May  Tao  pour  out  his  blessings  upon 
you!  You  are  very  imprudent  Your  son  is 
lost  if  you  take  him  to  that  Forest  of  Pen- 
cils. Under  the  pretext  of  teaching  him 
Sanskrit  and  Prakrit  they  will  corrupt  his 
young  mind  and  fill  it  with  poison.  The 
books  which  they  will  put  into  his  hands 
were  written  two  thousand  years  ago.  They 
do  not,  therefore,  tell  of  the  true  God,  for 
he  had  not  then  come  into  existence.  They 
are  made  up  of  abominable  poems  which 
celebrate  the  Metamorphoses  of  Vishnu  and 
the  superstitions  of  an  idolatrous  religion. 
And  for  examples  of  piety  they  exalt  those 
absurd  Fakirs  who  go  about  stark  naked. " 

"Oh,  my !  stark  naked ! "  exclaimed  Mrs. 
Fo  Hi,  blushing. 

"Yes,  stark  naked/'  replied  the  bonze, 
"and  they  drive  nails  into  their  legs,  and 
throw  themselves  under  the  car  of  Jugger- 
naut. You  know  very  well  how  contagious 


1 6  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

such  things  are !  Now,  put  your  son  in  my 
care.  We  will  teach  him  a  very  different 
kind  of  Sanskrit,  and  to  much  better  pur- 
pose. We  will  educate  him  in  the  fear  of 
Tao  and  of  his  representatives  upon  earth. 
We  will  make  him  a  young  man  after  our 
own  heart,  who  will  never  eat  unclean  food, 
who  will  give,  through  us,  large  sums  of 
money  in  charity,  and  who  will  never  put 
nails  into  his  legs." 

But  Mr.  Fo  Hi  was  unmoved  by  this  elo- 
quent appeal,  for  he  said  in  reply: 

"  It  isn't  likely  that  any  such  ambition  will 
get  the  best  of  him.  It  may  have  been  the 
fashion  two  thousand  years  ago  to  drive  nails 
into  one's  legs,  but  it  has  been  out  of  date 
too  long  to  be  revived  in  these  days,  all  the 
books  in  the  world  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing. I  am  not  acquainted  with  any  of  the 
poets  of  whom  you  speak,  but  however  beau- 
tiful their  verses  may  be  they  don't  have  any 


YOUNG  FO  HI  ENTERS  COLLEGE.  17 

effect  upon  anybody.  No,  I  am  not  worried 
about  anything  of  that .  kind,  and  you  cer- 
tainly love  your  ease  too  well  to  give  your- 
self any  anxiety  about  it.  I  should  be  very 
willing  to  put  my  son  under  your  instruc- 
tion if  I  intended  to  devote  him  to  the 
service  of  Tao.  But  I  want  to  make  a  man 
of  him  and  not  a  bonze,  and  therefore  it  is 
much  better  that  he  should  be  taught  by 
men,  and  that  he  should  learn  from  the  very 
first  how  to  act  among  men.  I  don't  care 
how  much  it  will  cost  me.  I  have  the  great 
honor  of  bidding  you  good-day  and  God- 
speed ! " 

And  thereupon  he  took  his  departure,  and 
left  the  bonze  alone  with  Mrs.  Fo  Hi,  to 
whom  the  wily  priest  thus  poured  out  his 
heart : 

uAlas !  alas !  such  blindness  makes  me 
tremble !  Unfortunate  Chinese !  Unfortunate 

China !     Ah  !  my  dear  lady,  it   is    for   you   to 
2 


1 8  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

atone  for  the  errors  of  your  husband,  and  to 
invoke  God's  blessing  on  your  son,  for  he 
will  have  need  enough  of  it.  Our  religious 
houses  are  very  poor.  His  Majesty,  Son  of 
Heaven,  who  expends  so  much  money  on 
his  colleges,  allows  us  also  a  small  subsidy 
which  goes  to  keep  up  our  rival  institutions. 
But  the  sum  is  insufficient,  and  it  is  neces- 
sary that  the  pious  should  come  to  our  as- 
sistance. We  are  living  on  the  charity  of 
the  public." 

"Here!"  said  Mrs.  Fo  Hi,  "take  this 
and  pray  for  my  poor  son,  but  don't  say 
anything  about  it  to  my  husband,  for  he 
would  scold." 

"  Don't  be  alarmed,  my  lady,"  said  the 
bonze,  bowing  himself  out,  "  I  am  the  hum- 
ble servant  of  him  who  said :  4  Let  not  your 
left  hand  know  the  money  which  your  right 
hand  receives.' " 


CHAPTER  III. 

AN     EDIFYING     CONVERSATION. 

ONE  of  Mr.  Fo  Hi's  neighbors  was  a 
learned  old  man,  whose  name  was  Li-jou-lin. 
He  was  a  philosopher,  very  wise  and  very 
shrewd,  who  spent  his  life  in  seeking  the 
truth,  and  who,  when  he  believed  that  he 
had  found  it,  uttered  it  cheerfully.  He  had 
some  very  original  ideas  upon  certain  del- 
icate matters,  and  in  his  books  boldly 
made  fun  of  bigots  and  fools.  He  had  in 
this  way  made  a  great  reputation,  and  also 
a  great  many  enemies.  He  was  disliked  by 
those  who  took  him  in  bad  part,  and  the 
people  who  caught  his  meaning  were  pretty 
sure  to  take  him  so. 

But  little  did  he  care  for  that.  He  de- 
spised honors  and  appointments,  and  with 

true     philosophical     contentment  he  was   sat- 
(19) 


20  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HL 

isfied  to  dine  upon  a  crust  of  bread  soaked 
in  a  glass  of  water. 

To  this  singular  genius  Mr.  Fo  Hi  went 
and  said : 

"  Neighbor,  I  have  come  to  ask  your  ad- 
vice. I  have  a  son  who  is  a  very  bright 
boy,  and  in  mind  far  in  advance  of  his 
age.  His  mother  is  urging  me  to  send  him 
to  college,  where  he  can  study  Sanskrit 
and  all  those  other  fine  things  which  are 
taught  there.  You  are  a  scholar,  and  I  want 
you  to  tell  me  what  you  think  of  it  ?" 

"First  answer  me  a  single  question,"  re- 
plied Li-jou-lin.  "  How  much  are  you 
worth  ?  " 

"  Oh !  don't  trouble  yourself  about  that, 
my  friend !  We  can  stand  it.  Of  course  we 
shall  have  to  pinch  a  little.  But  Mrs.  Fo 
Hi  will  get  along  with  one  gown  the  less, 
and  I  will  discharge  one  of  my  clerks  and 


AN  EDIFYING  CON  VERSA  TION.  2 1 

do  his  work  myself.  There  is  a  great  deal 
of  work  in  me  yet." 

"  I  don't  doubt  it,  but  that  is  not  what 
I  asked  you.  How  much  of  a  fortune  can 
you  settle  upon  your  son  when  he  shall 
have  completed  his  studies  ?  " 

"What!   how   much   of  a   fortune!" 

"  Yes,  certainly.  Only  those  who  teach 
Sanskrit  make  a  living  out  of  it.  I  have 
eaten  the  bread  which  it  brings  in,  and, 
I  can  tell  you,  I  don't  wish  any  one  such 
a  life  as  that." 

"  But  I  have  always  been  told  that  San- 
skrit is  the  road  to  everything." 

"  Very  true!  but  one  takes  a  great  risk 
when  he  enters  upon  a  road  which  leads  in 
every  direction  but  which  ends  nowhere. 
Sanskrit  is  the  ornament  of  a  great  fortune. 
It  is  not  the  means  of  gaining  a  fortune. 
It  is  certainly  very  difficult  to  keep  one's 
rank  in  good  society  without  some  little 


22  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HL 

knowledge  of  that  ancient  language  and  of 
the  subjects  connected  with  it.  But  then  it 
is  impossible  to  get  into  good  society  at  all 
without  new  gloves  and  polished  boots.  Are 
you  able  to  keep  him  in  boots  ? " 
"  But  he  will  have  a  position  ? " 
"  Yes,  but  the  position  which  he  will  get 
will  no  more  than  supply  him  with  bread, 
while  it  will  make  the  boots  a  necessity.  The 
Emperor  has  too  many  people  in  his  service 
to  pay  them  much.  He  gives  them  just 
enough  to  save  them  from  starvation,  but  at 
the  same  time  he  requires  them  to  be  lodged 
and  dressed,  whatever  their  rank  in  the  ser- 
vice may  be,  in  a  manner  worthy  of  him 
whom  they  represent.  You  understand  arith- 
metic, my  good  friend,  for  you  are  a  mer- 
chant. Now  what  would  you  say  to  an 
investment  which  would  cost  you  ten  thou- 
sand taels,  and  would  yield  you  only  five  per 
cent.,  besides  demanding  every  moment  of 


AN  EDIFYING  CONVERSATION.  23 

your  time  ?  Wouldn't  you  call  it  a  losing 
business  ?  Well,  it  is  the  very  thing  which 
you  are  now  thinking  of.  The  education  of 
a  young  man  consumes  fourteen  or  fifteen 
years,  ten  of  which  are  passed  in  college, 
and  the  remainder  in  the  professional  schools. 
Calculate  now  how  much  you  will  have  to 
lay  out  every  year,  then  add  the  compound 
interest,  and  at  the  end  of  the  time  you  will 
have  a  very  handsome  capital  invested  in 
your  son's  head.  If,  upon  his  coming  of 
age>  y°u  were  to  give  him  that  amount  in 
money,  or  in  land,  it  would  be  the  founda- 
tion of  a  large  fortune  and  an  influential 
position  in  the  community.  On  the  other 
hand,  you  give  it  to  him  in  Sanskrit,  and 
what  is  the  result  ?  He  gets  a  place  which 
confines  him  from  morning  till  night,  which 
shuts  out  every  hope  of  fortune  and  inde- 
pendence, and  the  money-return  of  which 
scarcely  equals  the  interest  on  the  sum 


24  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

invested.     That    is    plain    enough,   isn't    it  ?  " 
"And   yet,"   said    Fo     Hi,  the   grocer,    rub- 
bing   his    ear,   "the    Rector    of    the    College 

where   I   took  my  son  yesterday  " 

"  Oh !  you  took  your  son  to  the  College 
yesterday,  did  you  ?  " 

"Exactly!    To  be   sure   I    did!" 
"Just  the   thing,  just   the    thing.     I    advise 
you   to  leave   him  there." 

"Well!  I  am  delighted  that  you  think  so. 
Folks  are  right  when  they  call  you  a  clever 
man.  Whenever  you  need  any  rice  or  sugar, 
just  come  to  our  place,  You  shall  have  the 
best  at  the  lowest  price." 


CHAPTER     IV. 

YOUNG       FO      HI      GRADUATES      WITH       ALL      THE 
HONORS. 

I  AM  vexed  with  the  hero  of  this  story. 
He  was  neither  a  dunce  nor  a  genius.  He 
hovered  between  the  two,  rather  nearer  the 
one  than  the  other.  But  as  he  was  indus- 
trious and  docile,  he  was  a  favorite  with  his 
professors,  who  spoke  of  him  as  a  distin- 
guished pupil  because  there  was  nothing  to 
distinguish  him  from  his  comrades.  In  a 
class  of  sixty  students,  forty  are  always  dis- 
tinguished. Young  Fo  Hi  was  one  of  the 
forty.  During  the  nine  years  which  he 
passed  at  the  Forest  of  Pencils  he  learned 
everything  which  is  taught  there;  that  is, 
very  little  of  anything.  A  few  words  of 

Sanskrit  and    Prakrit   formed   the   most     con- 

(25) 


26  777^  MISERIES  OF  FO  777. 

spicuous  of  his  attainments.  His  father  took 
him  occasionally  to  call  upon  the  old  scholar 
Li-jou-Iin,  who  took  a  great  deal  of  pleasure 
in  drawing  the  little  fellow  into  conversation. 

"  My  boy  will  some  day  be  something," 
the  father  would  say,  proudly. 

"  It  would  be  much  better  if  he  were  to 
be  some  one?  the  old  philosopher  would 
mutter  in  reply. 

He  discovered  by  questioning  him  that  this 
future  savant  had  no  very  keen  taste  for  his 
studies.  To  be  sure,  he  felt  no  very  decided 
dislike  for  them,  but  when  he  was  told  to 
translate  from  Sanskrit  into  Chinese,  and 
from  Chinese  into  Sanskrit,  he  did  it  with 
the  same  supreme  indifference  with  which 
his  father's  clerk  would  have  changed  a 
customer's  order  from  a  bag  of  prunes  to  a 
ton  of  rice. 

"  What  an   excellent  grocer  this  young  im- 


YOUNG  FO  HI  GRADUATES.  27 

becile    would    have    made ! "    thought    Li-jou- 
lin.     "Another  vocation   missed !  " 

At  length  the  year  came  round  in  which 
the  son  of  Mr.  Fo  Hi  was  to  pass  his  final 
examination  before  the  literary  tribunal.  His 
professors  put  into  his  hands  a  great  book 
in  which  a  friend  of  youth  and  of  science 
had  collected  and  admirably  arranged  every- 
thing which  had  been  said,  done,  and  known 
by  men,  since  man  made  his  appearance 
upon  the  earth.  This  wonderful  work  the 
young  man  learned  by  heart  from  beginning 
to  end,  for  he  had  an  excellent  memory. 
And  in  this  way  he  was  enabled  to  astonish 
his  examiners  by  the  quickness  and  the . 
accuracy  of  his  answers.  He  therefore  re- 
ceived the  verdant  palm-leaf  of  which  a 
celebrated  Chinese  has  said  elegantly : 

11  It  grows  on  the  threshold  of  the  Forest 
of  Pencils,  and  allows  itself  to  be  plucked 
by  those  alone  who  have  learned  the  magic 


28  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

words.  Armed  with  this  talisman,  they  go 
forth  into  life,  and  every  door  opens  before 
them.  They  are  the  Kings  of  the  Future.*' 

When  it  was  all  over  young  Fo  Hi  went 
back  to  the  paternal  mansion  with  head 
erect,  as  became  a  king  of  the  future,  and 
told  the  news  to  his  father.  That  worthy 
gentleman  wept  with  joy,  and  made  a  great 
banquet  to  which  he  invited  his  relatives  and 
friends  without  forgetting  old  Li-jou-Jin. 
Everybody  drank  the  health  of  the  young 
king  of  the  future  and  predicted  a  most 
brilliant  career  for  him.  The  future  always 
looks  bright  when  we  see  it  across  a  glass 
of  sparkling  wine. 

About  midnight  nobody  but  Li-jou-lin  was 
in  a  condition  to  know  what  he  was  talking 
about,  and  even  he  had  nothing  to  say.  So 
he  slipped  out  smiling  under  his  beard.  At 
last  the  king  of  the  future  had  a  bad  attack 
of  indigestion,  and  thus  ended  one  of  the 
happiest  days  of  his  life. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  KING  OF  THE  FUTURE  IN  A  QUANDARY. 

"  AND  what  do  you  advise  me  to  do 
now  ? "  asked  the  young  graduate  one  day 
of  Li-jou-lin.  "All  the  professions  are  open 
to  me.  Which  shall  I  choose  ?" 

"  The  grocery  profession,"  answered  the 
philosopher. 

"  What  ?      I   a  grocer  ?      Oh  !    come   now !" 

"  Why,  it's  your  father's  profession,  young 
man." 

M  But  my  father  doesn't  know  a  word  of 
Sanskrit.  What  was  the  use  of  losing  ten 
years  in  studying  it,  if  I  am  only  to  follow 
in  his  footsteps  ?" 

"  A  great  deal  of  use.  It  will  enable  you 
to  enjoy  your  fortune  when  you  have  made 

it." 

But  the   king    of    the    future    screwed    up 
(-'9) 


30  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

his  lips  contemptuously,  and  concluded  that 
the  old  man  was  talking  nonsense.  So  he 
took  his  departure,  still  undecided  as  to  his 
future  course.  But  as  he  was  going  down 
the  street  he  met  one  of  his  classmates,  who 
carried  him  off  to  his  room,  which  was  very 
pretty  and  hung  all  round  with  opium  pipes. 
The  young  man  was  a  law  student,  and  it 
was  his  room  and  his  pipes  which  decided 
Fo  Hi's  profession.  His  mind  was  niade  up, 
and  forthwith  he  went  to  his  father  and  said : 
"I  would  like  to  study  law."  At  this  Mrs. 
Fo  Hi  chimed  in,  and  declared  that  it  would 
require  at  least  three  years  more  of  large 
outlay,  and  that  there  was  no  certainty  that, 
even  after  these  new  studies,  still  greater 
sacrifices  would  not  be  necessary.  She 
added,  too,  that  her  girls  were  now  of 
marriageable  age,  and  they  must  think  of 
getting  husbands  for  them.  Now  the  two 
sisters  were  listening  to  the  conversation 


IN  A  QUANDARY.  31 

through  the  key-hole.  They  were  good  girls, 
although  a  trifle  too  curious.  But  then  no 
one  is  perfect,  as  the  wise  Confucius  says. 
When,  therefore,  they  heard  what  their 
mother  said  about  them,  they  walked  in 
boldly  and  joined  in  the  conversation,  both  pf 
them  declaring  that  they  were  in  no  hurry, 
and  that  they  would  very  cheerfully  wait 
to  enable  their  brother  to  set  out  suitably 
on  the  road  to  distinction.  They  said,  be- 
sides, that  they  wanted  to  be  married,  not 
'for  their  dot,  but  for  themselves  alone,  which 
is  one  of  the  prejudices  of  young  Chinese 
women.  Tears  rained  in  showers  that  even- 
ing in  the  family  of  the  estimable  Mr.  Fo 
Hi.  But  at  last,  after  a  great  many  kisses 
and  more  tears,  it  was  decided  that  the 
king  of  the  future  should  have  an  allowance 
from  his  father. 

Of  course  the  young  fellow  made  all  sorts 
of  fine  promises,    and    to   his    credit   it   must 


32  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  ///. 

• 
be  said   that    he    kept    them    as    well    as    he 

could.  He  was  not  bad,  and  he  was  not 
lazy.  His  mind  was  of  that  medium  sort 
which  follows  with  perfect  docility  the  path 
marked  out  for  it.  He  went  on  in  a  me- 
chanical kind  of  way  wherever  the  gale  of 
circumstances  impelled  him,  looking  neither 
to  the  right  nor  to  the  left.  There  are 
more  minds  of  this  sort  in  the  world  than 
we  think,  for  as  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
philosophers  of  China  has  very  justly  said  : 

"  Man  in  general  is  neither  an  angel  nor  a 
brute." 

During  these  three  years  of  legal  study, 
young  Fo  Hi  did  not  therefore  lose  himself. 
He  only  lost  his  father's  money.  He  passed 
all  his  examinations  with  honor,  won  all  the 
degrees,  and  at  last  received  a  handsome 
diploma,  signed  by  the  Minister  and  counter- 
signed by  the  Emperor,  by  which  he  was 
authorized  to  wear  a  crystal  button  on  his 


IN  A  QUANDARY.  33 

cap.  And  on  that  auspicious  day  Fo  Hi 
the  elder  felt  himself  compensated  for  all 
his  sacrifices,  and  even  Mrs.  Fo  Hi  allowed 
herself  to  be  dazzled  by  the  brilliancy  of 
that  button.  She  forgot,  poor  woman,  that 
for  three  years  she  had  risen  at  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  and  had  done  the  work  of 
two  servants.  But  the  diploma  was  suitably 
framed  and  hung  up  in  the  best  room  in 
the  house.  And  it  must  be  said  that  it  was 
a  great  consolation  to  the  two  sisters  to  see 
it  hanging  there,  for  with  all  their  gener- 
osity they  had  not  escaped  some  wakeful 
and  anxious  nights. 

And  now  at  last  the  great  Tao  took  pity 
on  their  humdrum  lives,  and  sent  them 
both  husbands.  Pe-ka  o  sued  for  the  eldest 
He  was  a  good  fellow,  finely  formed,  broad- 
shouldered,  and  had  a  laugh  which  could 
be  heard  at  a  great  distance.  He  belonged 
to  the  agricultural  class,  and  owned  a  farm, 


34  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

which  he  cultivated  himself.  He  was  told 
plainly  that  he  must  expect  no  dowry  with 
his  bride,  but  he  did  not  frown.  He  re- 
plied immediately  that  a  good  housekeeper 
was  the  best  of  treasures  on  a  farm,  and 
that  Miss  Fo  Hi  was  rich  enough  in  beauty 
and  goodness  to  dispense  with  any  other 
dowry.  The  compliment  was,  to  be  sure, 
neither  very  new  nor  very  elegantly  ex- 
pressed, but  it  was  sincere,  and  was  given 
in  the  frank  and  whole-hearted  manner  which 
dispels  all  doubt.  It  was  enough  that  it 
was  a  compliment.  So  Miss  Fo  Hi  smiled 
sweetly  and  accepted  him. 

The  younger  daughter  was  scarcely  a  year 
younger  than  her  sister,  and  this  approach- 
ing wedding  put  some  ideas  into  her  head. 
She  went  to  her  father  and  told  him  that 
she  was  in  love  with  Chi-kau  go,  and  Chi- 
kau-go  she  must  many. 

"  Good  gracious  !     What !"     exclaimed    Mr. 


IN  A  QUANDARY.  35 

Fo  Hi  in  the  greatest  astonishment.  "  My 
clerk !  But  I  can't  throw  my  daughter  at 
his  head.  He  will  have  to  ask  me  for  her 
first." 

"  Oh !  he  will  never  dare  to  do  that. 
You  are  so  dignified,  you  know,  papa !" 

"  But  do  you  know  whether  he  loves 
you  ?  Has  the  rascal  had  the  impudence  to 
tell  you  so?" 

"  He !  Why  he  doesn't  even  dare  to  look 
at  me." 

"  Well,   well,  I   declare  !" 
The     girl     smiled,     like    her    sister,      only 
much    more    mischievously.      She    sat     down 
on    her     father's    knee     and    put     her     arms 
around  his  neck,   and    then  went   on : 

"  You  will  take  him  into  partnership,  and  we 
will  stay  with  you  always.  You  will  grow 
old  surrounded  by  your  children  and,  Heaven 
willing,  your  grandchildren,  and  we  will  all 
be  happy,  for  we  shall  all  be  together." 


36  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

"All    right!     Send   him   to    me,"    said  Mr. 
Fo   Hi,   who  already   saw   his   grandchildren 
climbing  up  his  legs  and  shouting,  "  Grandpa ! 
Grandpa !  " 

Chi-kau-go  made  his  appearance  forthwith, 
trembling  like  an  aspen  leaf,  and  with  his 
face  as  red  as  a  peony.  He  was  naturally 
very  timid,  although  he  was  nothing  but  a 
rough  workingman.  But  Mr.  Fo  Hi  had 
discovered  that  he  was  a  man  of  good 
common  sense,  and  common  sense  is  worth 
much  more  in  business  than  intellect. 

Well,  the  whole  thing  was  agreeably  ar- 
ranged, and  the  two  weddings  came  off  on 
the  same  day.  Doctor  Fo  Hi  condescended 
to  honor  the  festivities  with  his  crystal 
button.  He  was,  of  course,  a  little  ashamed 
of  the  brothers  in-law  that  his  sisters  had 
brought  him,  but,  upon  reflection,  he  recol- 
lected that  he  also  was  to  blame  for  it,  as 
they  had  sacrificed  their  marriage  portion 


IN  A   QUANDARY.  37 

for  him.  He  therefore  promised  himself  that 
some  day  he  would  take  them  from  their 
present  low  calling,  and  by  his  credit  and 
influence  raise  them  to  a  position  more 
worthy  of  himself.  He  would  be  their 
patron,  and  this  flattering  fancy  reconciled 
him  to  their  present  inferior  condition.  He 
even  composed  four  or  five  couplets  in 
honor  of  the  two  brides,  which  sounded 
very  pretty,  but  which  we  suppress  lest  the 
reader  should  not  get  as  much  enjoyment 
out  of  them  as  did  Mr.  Fo  Hi.  As  for 
Mrs.  Fo  Hi,  she  wept  profusely  when  they 
were  sung,  she  wept  again  in  the  evening 
when  she  had  to  give  up  her  daughters  to 
their  husbands,  and  she  began  to  weep 
again  the  next  morning  as  soon  as  she 
woke  up.  There  is- something  marvellous  in 
tears.  They  give  relief  to  the  greatest  joys 
as  well  as  the  greatest  sorrows. 

"  Well,   now,   my    boy,"    said    Mr.    Fo    Hi, 


38  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

senior,  to  his  son,  clapping  him  vigorously 
on  the  shoulder.  "Your  sisters  are  settled, 
and  now  it  is  your  turn.  As  the  Govern- 
ment has  given  you  an  education,  it  now 
owes  you  a  position.  We  will  make  an 
application." 

The  grocer  therefore  became  now  a  solic- 
itor. The  honeymoon  of  the  two  young 
couples  beamed  gently  on  the  long  and 
fruitless  exertions  of  the  worthy  man,  and 
mitigated  the  annoyance  which  he  suffered 
in  his  failures.  He  went  at  first  to  the 
Master  of  the  Brazen  Rod,  who  exercises 
in  China  the  same  functions  as  the  Minister 
of  Justice  in  France.  For  some  months  he 
showered  appeals  and  petitions  upon  this 
official.  These  documents  were  of  all  possi- 
ble kinds  and  styles.  Some  were  polite  and 
dignified,  some  were  alarmingly  familiar,  and 
still  others  were  pathetic  and  importunate. 
Sometimes  they  appealed  to  the  reason,  and 


IN  A   QUANDARY.  39 

sometimes  to  the  heart  of  the  dignitary. 
They  referred  frequently  to  the  services 
which  the  family  of  Fo  Hi,  from  generation 
to  generation,  had  rendered  to  the  country 
by  selling  pepper,  and  their  unwavering 
fidelity  to  the  Emperor  and  his  august  con- 
sort. Then  the  fine  education  and  the  per- 
sonal merits  of  the  candidate  were  exalted, 
and  especial  emphasis  was  laid  upon  the 
sums  which  his  extensive  preparation  had 
cost.  At  other  times  another  vein  was 
struck,  and  the  fate  of  the  young  man  was 
deplored,  whose  splendid  powers  could  find 
no  employment,  and  whose  only  hope  was 
in  the  kindness  of  the  Minister. 

To  all  these  petitions,  which  might  have 
moved  the  heart  of  a  tiger,  the  Minister 
sent  no  reply  whatever.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  his  mind  was  full  of  other  business. 
The  grocer  was  not  discouraged,  however. 
Among  his  customers,  or  rather  his  clients 


40  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HIk 

as  he  called  them,  there  were  some  very 
influential  people,  and  to  these  he  went  until 
they  were  worn  out.  Some  of  them,  to  get 
rid  of  him,  endorsed  his  applications,  which 
were,  however,  no  better  received  for  that 
Others  promised  to  do  something  for  him, 
and  then  ordered  the  servants  to  shut  the 
door  in  his  face  if  he  should  return.  The 
poor  man,  who,  up  to  this  time,  had  been 
plump,  fresh,  and  spry,  and  whose  face  had 
beamed  with  health  and  happiness,  became 
now  haggard  and  sallow.  That  bright  and 
blooming  countenance  grew  sadly  long  and 
bent  downward  to  the  grave.  He  neglected 
his  shop,  and  had  fits  of  bad  temper  toward 
his  wife,  and  son,  and  everybody,  but  espe- 
cially toward  Ministers,  of  whom  he  spoke 
with  alarming  freedom.  For  instance,  he 
said  one  day,  in  a  confidential  mood,  to  old 
Li  jou-lin: 


IN  A   QUANDARY.  41 

"  I'm  sure  I  don't  know  what  we  pay 
them  so  well  for.  They  don't  attend  to 
the  business  of  the  country,  and  meanwhile 
my  son  is  on  the  street  with  nothing  to 
do.  That  boy  has  cost  me  my  very  eyes, 
and  he  is  still  costing  me  his  weight  in 
money.  He  is  endorsed  by  everybody,  and 
I  have  interested  all  the  people  whom  I 
know,  as  well  as  some  whom  I  don't  know. 
A  Mandarin  of  the  first  class,  who  took  an 
interest  in  him  because  he  was  at  college 
with  his  nephew,  was  to  speak  a  good  word 
for  him,  but  nothing  ever  came  of  it.  The 
Minister  has  made  many  fine  promises,  but 
that  is  all  very  cheap.  There  is  no  sign  of 
any  appointment  yet.  If  I  could  get  to  the 
Emperor  I  would  tell  him  the  whole  story." 

Now  the  old  philosopher  might  have  found 
some  malicious  satisfaction  in  replying  to 
this  tirade,  "  I  told  you  so."  But  he  was 
a  good-natured  philosopher,  and  he  knew 


42  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  ///. 

that  it  would  not  help  matters  any.  So  he 
said  quietly : 

"What  place  would  you  like  your  son  to 
have  ? " 

"  Oh,  it  doesn't  matter  what  or  where," 
said  Mr.  Fo  Hi.  "  Only  let  my  boy  get 
a  start,  and  he  will  make  his  way,  I'll  war- 
rant." 

"  Very  well.  I  will  ask  my  old  house- 
keeper to  use  her  influence  for  you." 

At  this  the  grocer  opened  his  eyes  wide 
with  surprise,  and  thought  that  Li-jou-lin 
was  making  fun  of  him.  But  he  was  mis- 
taken. The  old  man  was  in  earnest.  So 
the  housekeeper  was  called,  and  the  whole 
business  was  related  to  her.  After  she  had 
heard  it  she  said,  modestly,  as  she  retired : 

"  I  will    try  what  I   can    do." 

Now  this  old  woman  had  an  intimate 
friend,  an  old  rag-picker,  whose  son  was  a 
soldier  of  the  Imperial  Guard.  This  valiant 


IN  A   QUANDARY.  43 

young  man  was  the  lover  of  a  cousin  of 
the  lady's-maid  whose  business  it  was  every 
morning  to  dress  the  hair  of  the  Minister's 
wife.  And  thus  it  came  to  pass  that  eight 
days  after  this  conversation,  Mr.  Fo  Hi 
junior  received  a  very  large  letter  bearing 
the  Imperial  seal.  With  trembling  hands  he 
tore  it  open,  and  when  he  had  hastily  read 
it  through,  he  shouted : 

"  I   have   a   place  ! )J    * 

"  He  has  a  place ! "  echoed  the  delighted 
father. 

"  He  has  a  place !  He  has  a  place ! " 
shouted  everybody  in  the  house.  And  soon 
the  neighbors,  men  and  women,  joined  in, 
and  a  single  shout  rang  through  the  shop 
and  far  out  into  the  street — 

"  He    has   a   place !     He   has   a   place ! " 


CHAPTER     VI. 

IN    WHICH    YOUNG     FO     HI    ENTERS    UPON     PUBLIC 
LIFE. 

"AND  what  place  is  it  ?  "  everybody  asked, 
after  the  first  outburst  of  delight. 

Well,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  it  was 
not  a  very  brilliant  place.  It  was  of  course 
not  worthy  of  the  superior  abilities  of  the 
young  man ;  but  then  a  beginning  has  to  be 
made  somewhere. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  Chinese  con- 
struct their  roads,  as  we  do  here,  by  laying 
a  bed  of  broken  stone,  which  is  pressed 
down  firm  and  hard  with  a  huge  roller. 
The  Chinese  are  the  real  inventors  of  the 
Macadam  pavement,  as  they  are  also  of  the 
mariner's  compass  and  of  gunpowder.  The 
laborers  are  stationed  at  intervals  along  the 

(44) 


PO  HI  ENTERS  PUBLIC  LIFE.  45 

road,  and  it  is  their  business  to  break  the 
large  stones  into  fragments,  which  they  then 
collect  in  heaps  along  the  wayside.  Now 
the  shape  and  size  of  these  heaps  of  stone 
were  regulated  at  a  very  early  date  by  the 
founder  of  the  twenty-second  dynasty,'  upon 
whom  Heaven  bestowed  the  spirit  of  wisdom. 
Two  or  three  thousand  years  later  the  in- 
comparable Se-i-ho  covered  himself  with  glory 
by  ordaining  the  exact  number  of  small 
stones  which  these  heaps  should  contain. 
He  fixed  upon  the  number  3333,  because 
three  is  a  sacred  number,  and  by  repeat- 
ing it  three  times  we  get  the  number  nine, 
which  is  the  number  of  the  celestial  spheres 
and  of  the  attributes  of  the  Omnipotent. 
This  ordinance  remained  in  force  for  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  years,  until  the  reign  of  the 
wise  Fisch-ton-kan,  whose  fame  is  universal. 
This  great  monarch  published  a  decree,  in 
which,  while  doing  justice  to  the  wise  and 


46  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

exalted  views  of  his  predecessor,  he  declared 
that  his  enactment  evidenced  gross  supersti- 
tion, and  was  no  longer  in  accordance  with 
Chinese  ideas.  He  therefore  struck  a  mean 
between  the  blind  partisans  of  routine  on 
the  one  hand,  who  wanted  to  retain  the 
sacred  number,  and  the  rash  innovators,  on 
the  other  hand,  who  demanded  that  the  num- 
ber should  be  reduced  to  three  thousand. 
He  fixed  the  legal  tale  of  stones  at  3300, 
and  flattered  himself  that  this  reform,  so 
desirable  and  so  necessary,  would  be  final. 
But  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  later,  a  pupil 
of  Confucius,  the  immortal  Ka-o-li,  made 
another  change  in  the  heaps  of  stone.  He 
ordered  that  the  tale  of  each  heap  should 
never  exceed  3000,  and  declared  that  this 
number  alone  could  insure  the  happiness  of 
China.  A  few  grumblers  found  fault  with 
this  change,  but  a  grateful  nation  with  one 
voice  bestowed  on  Ka-o-li  the  title,  which 


FO  HI  ENTERS  PUBLIC  LIFE.  47 

he  so  richly  deserved,  Father  of  his  Country. 

I  can  only  speak  here  from  memory,  of  a 
vast  number  of  regulations,  some  of  which 
prescribed  that  the  small  stones  should  be 
round,  so  as  not  to  hurt  the  horses'  feet, 
and  others  that  they  should  be  sharp  at  the 
end  so  that  they  might  be  pressed  in  more 
closely  by  the  roller.  The  reader  may  con- 
sult for  himself,  in  the  Archives  of  the  Em- 
pire, this  great  collection  of  decrees,  which 
fills  no  less  than  eighteen  volumes,  and  which 
remains  as  one  of  the  most  splendid  monu- 
ments of  Chinese  wisdom. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  construction  of 
Chinese  roads  must  employ  an  army  of 
laborers  and  officials.  There  is,  first  of  all, 
the  stone-breaker,  who  occupies  the  lowest 
rank  in  this  scale  of  preferment,  who  is  re- 
garded as  a  mere  laborer,  and  who  is  despised 
accordingly.  Then  comes  the  Master-Sur- 
veyor, who  arranges  the  heaps  of  stone  in 


48  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  III. 

the  desired  shape;  then  the  Controller,  who 
examines  and  counts  them ;  then  the  Auditor, 
who  recounts  them;  then  the  Inspector,  who 
supervises  these  different  officers ;  and  last  of 
all  the  Director-in-chief,  whose  business  is  to 
direct  the  whole  department,  in  accordance 
with  his  instructions  from  the  Minister,  to 
whom  they  are  communicated  directly  by 
the  Emperor.  The  heaps  of  stone  are  the 
ornament  and  the  pride  of  China,  but  she 
pays  dearly  for  them,  as  Panurge  says  in  a 
pious  book  written  by  a  famous  bonze.  The 
stone-breaker  works  all  day,  and  barely  earns 
his  living.  The  Master-Surveyor  does  a  little 
less,  and  is  paid  a  little  more,  and  so  on, 
up  to  the  Director-in- Chief,  who  is  paid  a 
very  large  salary  for  doing  nothing  but  fold 
his  arms. 

Good  situations  like  these  are  very  much 
sought  after,  as  we  may  well  suppose,  and 
although  the  Emperor  has  again  and  again 


FO  HI  ENTERS  PUBLIC  LIFE.  49 

increased  the  number  of  them,  his  subjects 
are  not  yet  satisfied.  There  are  almost  as 
many  Master- Surveyors  in  China  as  there  are 
heaps  of  stone,  but  the  applicants  for  ap- 
pointment are  more  numerous  than  the  stars 
of  heaven.  The  government,  therefore,  being 
desirous  of  doing  something  for  them,  has 
created  the  position  of  Supernumerary.  The 
Supernumeraries  are  the  people  who  are  told  : 
"  Be  patient.  The  first  vacant  position  shall 
be  yours.  Just  wait."  And  while  waiting 
they  play  with  the  buckles  on  their  robes. 
But  as  even  this  was  insufficient  to  meet  the 
demands  of  the  case,  another  position  still 
has  been  provided,  that  of  Supernumerary- 
Expectant. 

The  young  and  incomparable  Fo  Hi  was 
accordingly  nominated  as  "  Supernumerary- 
Expectant  Master-Surveyor  of  Stone  Heaps/' 
at  the  small  town  of  Pi-ho.  The  whole 

family   immediately   looked    up    the   place    on 
4 


„  50  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

the  map,  and  found  that  it  was  at  the  other 
end  of  the  Empire.  Mrs.  Fo  Hi  sighed  as 
she  thought  that  she  might  never  see  her 
son  again.  But  the  young  man  was  trans- 
ported with  delight  -at  the  prospect  of  seeing 
the  country. 

By  special  favor,  a  few  days  before  his 
departure  he  had  an  audience  with  the  Minis- 
ter of  Public  Works.  He  was  exceedingly 
nervous  as  he  entered  the  door,  for  he  ex- 
pected that  the  dignitary  would  receive  him 
coldly  and  haughtily.  But  he  was  greatly 
mistaken.  He  found  the  Minister  a  plain, 
easy,  refined  man,  who  received  him  with 
as  much  kindness  as  dignity.  He  -talked 
pleasantly  with  him  for  five  minutes,  gave 
him  some  good  advice,  and  concluded  by 
telling  him  that  a  bright  future  was  opening 
before  him,  and  that  with  the  education 
which  he  had  received  he  could  not  fail  to 
make  rapid  advancement  in  his  profession. 


FO  HI  ENTERS  PUBLIC  LIFE.  51 

The  young  man  did  not  understand  very 
clearly  of  what  use  Sanskrit  could  be  to 
him  in  the  work  of  surveying  stones.  But 
he  went  away  no  less  delighted  with  his 
interview,  and  ordered  immediately  a  superb 
blue  suit  of  clothes,  embroidered  with  silver. 
This  was  the  uniform  of  his  office.  Mr. 
Fo  Hi,  senior,  had  to  pay  for  the  suit,  of 
course.  He  also  paid  the  travelling  expenses 
and  such  other  sums  as  were  necessary  to 
launch  the  young  man  upon  his  career  be- 
comingly. He  did  it  all  gladly,  for  he  be- 
lieved the  time  was  not  distant  when  he 
would  be  richly  rewarded  for  his  many 


CHAPTER  VII. 

FO    HI    STARTS    OUT    SPLENDIDLY. 

THAT  day  of  recompense  came  far  more 
quickly  than  any  one  could  have  expected. 
Young  Fo  Hi  was  in  luck.  An  obliging 
attack  of  cholera  took  out  of  his  path  in  a 
few  weeks  two  Supernumeraries-Expectant, 
three  Supernumeraries,  and  better  still,  a 
full-blown  official,  who  died,  like  any  ordi- 
nary mortal,  of  the  colic.  One  hundred  and 
seventeen  candidates  for  the  position  which 
he  had  held  sent  in  their  applications,  but 
of  that  number  only  four  or  five  were  really 
eligible.  The  Minister  was  eagerly  solicited 
in  behalf  of  two  of  the  rival  applicants,  by 
two  personages  of  equal  importance,  and 
both  of  whom  he  feared  to  offend.  There- 
fore, that  neither  of  them  might  feel  slighted, 
(52) 


FO  HI  STARTS  OUT  SPLENDID L  Y.  53 

he  set  aside  both  applicants,  and  chose  a 
third,  at  random,  for  the  position.  The 
party  whose  good  luck  was  born  of  this 
accident  was  no  other  than  our  hero  Fo  Hi, 
who  was  thereupon  persuaded  that  in  China 
merit  weighs  vastly  more  than  official  favor. 
He  entered  upon  his  new  labors  on  the  first 
of  April,  7961.  He  was  young  and  enthu- 
siastic, and  ambitious  to  rise,  and  therefore ' 
displayed  remarkable  zeal  in  the  discharge 
of  his  duties.  He  was  always  at  his  post 
before  the  hour  fixed  by  the  rules,  urging 
on  his  laborers,  counting  his  tale  of  stones, 
and  arranging  his  heap  with  a  care  and  pre- 
cision which  the  citizens  of  Pi-ho  still  re- 
member with  admiration.  He  passed  his 
evenings  in  preparing  the  daily  reports  which 
every  Surveyor  had  to  make  of.  the  day's 
proceedings.  These  he  handed  to  the  Con- 
troller, who  sent  them,  without  reading  them, 
to  the  Auditor,  who  in  turn  passed  them 


54  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

on  to  the  Inspector,  who  turned  them  over 
to  the  Director-in-Chief,  who  forwarded  them 
to  the  Minister,  who  carefully  deposited  them 
in  a  box,  where  scholars  may  still  find  them 
in  the  thirty-eighth  alcove  of  the  Archives, 
column  No.  117,  under  title  No.  1,285,000. 
Mr.  Fo  Hi,  junior,  was  very  much  sur- 
prised that  no  one  had  ever  complimented 
him  on  these  reports,  into  which  he  put  his 
whole  soul,  and  which  he  embellished  with 
some  telling  Sanskrit  citations.  But  he  kept 
on  writing  them  in  the  same  style,  and  con- 
tinued to  exert  himself  so  earnestly  to  do 
his  work  well,  that  he  began  to  get  the  ill- 
will  of  his  comrades.  The  more  sensible 
of  them  excused  him  on  the  ground  that 
it  was  the  enthusiasm  of  youth  which  would 
soon  pass  off.  But  the  majority  of  them 
regarded  him  privately  as  an  intriguer,  who 
was  trying  to  distinguish  himself  to  the  in- 
jury of  his  comrades  by  his  new  and  dan- 


FO  HI  STARTS  OUT  SPLENDIDL  K  55 

gerous  zeal  in  the  service.  They  treated 
him  with  cold  reserve,  and  looked  at  him 
askance  with  flashing  eyes.  But  he  consoled 
himself  with  the  thought  that  he  had  the 
approval  of  his  own  conscience,  and  the 
good  opinion  of  his  superiors. 

When  he  had  time,  he  wrote  a  long  letter 
to  his  father,  in  which  he  related  all  that 
he  had  done  and  was  doing.  And  when 
this  inspiring  epistle  was  read  to  the  family 
it  gave  them  all  the  liveliest  pleasure.  But 
old  Li-jou-lin  did  not  share  in  the  general 
satisfaction.  He  shook  his  head  slowly  and 
wisely,  and  said : 

"  That  doesn't  please  me  at  all.  It  isn't 
good  for  a  young  man  to  show  himself  too 
capable  in  a  subordinate  position.  People 
will  be  too  willing  to  let  him  stay  there. 
The  wise  Confucius  was  in  the  habit  of  say- 
ing: 'No  zeal!  No  zeal!'" 

"  No  zeal ! "   exclaimed  Mr.   Fo   Hi,  senior. 


56  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

"I  .should  like  to  see  one  of  my  clerks 
shirking  his  work.  I  tell  you  he  would  very 
quickly  get  his  discharge,"  and  grasping  the 
hand  of  his  son-in-law,  who  was  standing 
by,  he  added :  "  You  see  here  before  you 
an  example  of  what  a  man  gets  by  putting 
his  heart  into  his  work." 

"  But  you  are  not  the  Government,"  said 
the  old  man,  "  and  the  Empire  is  not  a 
grocery-store.  You  have  as  many  men  in 
your  employ  as  you  actually  need,  not  one 
more.  You  require  them  to  do  your  work 
for  you,  and  you  pay  them  in  proportion 
to  their  diligence." 

"Yes,  that's  true.  And  the  better  they  do 
their  work,  the  more  I  pay  them." 

"And  you  are  perfectly  right.  The  Gov- 
ernment, however,  does  just  the  contrary, 
and  it  is  right,  too.  Just  think  of  the  con- 
fusion which  your  son  must  introduce  into 
the  machinery  of  the  administration,  with  his 


FO  HI  STARTS  OUT  SPLENDIDL  Y.  57 

fine  enthusiasm.  At  one  stroke  he  makes 
all  his  superior  officers  useless  and  unneces- 
sary. For  of  what  use  is  a  Controller  who 
has  nothing  to  control,  or  an  Auditor  who 
has  nothing  to  audit  ?  Do  you  suppose  that 
these  gentlemen  will,  with  their  eyes  open, 
allow  your  young  man  to  teach  the  public 
that  it  can  get  along  without  them  ?  You 
can  make  up  your  mind  that  they  don't 
like  his  performances  any  better  than  his 
comrades.  He  is  a  young  upstart,  breaking 
the  peace  of  the  City  of  God.  Is  there  any- 
thing finer  or  more  marvellously  ordered 
than  a  Government  in  which  each  one  gives 
up  a  part  of  his  work  to  his  neighbor  in  a 
spirit  of  broad  public  charity  ?  The  Surveyor 
does  not  survey  accurately  out  of  regard  for 
the  feelings  of  the  Controller,  who  in  his 
turn  is  a  little  lax  in  his  duties  out  of  re- 
spect for  the  Auditor,  who  again  permits  him- 
self a  little  carelessness  in  his  work  out  of 


53  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

politeness    to  \he    Inspector,   who  takes    good 

• 
care  not  to  supervise  anything,  lest  he  should 

take  the  wind  out  of  the  Director-in-Chief 's 
rails.  And  this  dignitary,  for  his  part,  is 
both  blind  and  deaf  to  everything  out  of 
thoughtfulness  for  the  Minister.  Thus  you 
have  a  courteous  interchange  of  kind  offices 
all  the  way  up,  which  is  calculated  to  pro- 
mote the  harmony  of  the  Empire.  In  this 
way  the  work  gets  done  leisurely,  and,  so 
to  speak,  of  itself,  in  the  natural  course  of 
things,  without  disagreeable  haste  or  dan- 
gerous enthusiasm." 

"  Oh  !  "  exclaimed  the  grocer.  "  You  think 
the  work  will  get  done  of  itself,  do  you  ?" 

"  Well,  it  will  not  get  overdone,  at  any 
rate ! " 

"  Why,  how  is  that  ?  "  asked  Fo  Hi's  son- 
in-law,  who  seemed  very  much  puzzled  at 
the  philosopher's  reasoning. 

"Bless     me!"      replied       Li-jou-lin.       "It's 


FO  HI  STARTS  OUT  SPLENDIDLY.  59 

plain  enough.  If  the  work  isn't  done,  what 
is  there  for  the  Emperor  to  do,  to  remedy 
the  matter,  but  to  appoint  a  new  batch  of 
Surveyors  ?  This,  of  course,  will  necessitate 
the  appointment  of  two  or  three  Controllers, 
for  whom  an  Auditor  must  be  provided. 
Just  think  how  many  new  positions  are  cre- 
ated in  this  way,  and  how  nicely  it  is  all 
managed !  Now  your  son  is  an  interloper 
who  settles  like  a  white  frost  upon  this 
fruitful  process  of  official  multiplication.  He 
will  get  himself  into  trouble  if  he  isn't 
careful.  Write  him  that  I  say  so." 

Mr.  Fo  Hi  did  write,  but  his  letter  reached 
its  destination  at  an  unlucky  time.  It  was 
the  last  day  of  the  first  quarter,  and  Fo  Hi 
junior  had  just  drawn  his  pay.  Those  who 
have  had  the  unspeakable  pleasure  of  holding 
public  office  know  the  fascination  and  the 
bliss  of  pay-day.  Our  hero  jingled  in  the 
palm  of  his  hand  the  pretty  taels,  on  which 


60  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

glittered  the  likeness  of  the  Emperor,  and 
thrust  his  father's  wise  admonitions  into  his 
pocket  without  a  moment's  thought.  Four- 
teen times  he  wrote  his  signature  on  the 
fourteen  receipts  which  the  cashier  handed 
him,  and  he  would  have  written  it  two  hun- 
dred times  if  it  had  been  required.  Five 
per  cent.,  however,  was  deducted  from  each 
month's  wages,  besides  twelve  per  cent,  from 
the  first  month's,  which,  he  was  told,  was  a 
delicate  bit  of  forethought  on  the  part  of 
the  Government  for  the  purpose  of  accumu- 
lating for  him  a  reserve  fund,  which  would 
assure  him  a  maintenance  for  his  old  age. 
He  thought  this  the  best  idea  he  had  ever 
heard  of,  and  it  gave  him  such  a  sense  of 
security  that  he  invited  all  his  comrades  to 
dinner.  There  he  got  them  all  tipsy,  got  as 
tipsy  himself  as  a  bonze,  spent  in  one  night 
the  whole  quarter's  pay  which  he  had  drawn 


FO  HI  S7ARTS  OUT  SPLENDID L  Y.  61 

in  the  morning,  and  woke  up  the  next  even- 
ing with  a  tremendous  pain  in  his  head, 
and  without  a  cent  in  his  pocket. 


CHAPTER     VIII. 

A    FRIGHTFUL      CATASTROPHE. 

^ 

"POVERTY  is  not  a  vice,"  said  some  one  to 
a  philosopher.  "  It  is  far  worse,"  was  the 
reply.  And  young  Fo  Hi  was  not  long  in 
finding  out  to  his  sorrow  that  this  philoso- 
pher was  no  fool.  The  expense  of  living 
was  not  very  great  in  the  village  where  he 
acted  as  one  of  the  representatives  of  the 
Emperor,  but  his  salary  scarcely  exceeded 
the  small  sum  which  he  paid  for  his  food 
and  lodging.  Fortunately,  he  had  a  wtll- 
stocked  wardrobe.  He  took  care  of  it  him- 
self; and  no  old  maid,  dependent  on  a  rich 
cousin,  ever  brushed,  folded,  examined  and 
kept  in  order  her  belongings  with  more  mi- 
nute care  and  precision.  His  fine  blue  suit 

embroidered  with    silver    was    still    fresh  and 
(62) 


A  FRIGHTFUL  CATASTROPHE.  63 

bright,  and  in  this  he  dressed  on  great  oc- 
casions. And  the  respectful  salutes  which 
this  striking  costume  won  for  him  when  he 
promenaded  the  streets  in  it  compensated 
him  for  all  his  tribulations.  For  the  mo- 
ment, he  could  forget  that  he  was  sinking 
step  by  step  into  that  worst  of  all  miseries, 
misery  in  an  embroidered  suit.  He  was  not 
a  man  who  could  meet  a  creditor  at  every 
street  corner  without  blushing.  He  was  as 
honest  at  heart  as  he  was  narrow  in  mind. 
In  order  to  live  and  to  maintain  the  dignity 
of  his  position,  without  defrauding  any  one, 
he  inflicted  the  most  cruel  privations  upon 
himself. 

"  It  will  soon  be  over,"  he  said  to  himself 
one  morning  as  he  was  soaking  a  cent's 
worth  of  bread  in  a  cent's  worth  of  milk  for 
his  breakfast.  "  My  faithfulness,  I  am  sure, 
will  soon  be  noticed  by  my  superior  officers, 
and  I  shall  then  be  promoted.  I  shall  have 


64  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

a  larger  salary,  and  will  live  more  comfort- 
ably, and  will  then  be  repaid  for  all  my  sac- 
rifices." 

It  was  not  long  before  he  heard  some 
news  which  filled  his  heart  with  hope  and 
joy.  It  was  announced  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Pi-ho,  that  the  Minister  of  Public  Works  had 
been  sent  by  the  Emperor  on  a  tour  of  in- 
spection to  the  distant  districts  of  the  Em- 
pire, and  would  honor  them  by  entering  the 
gates  of  the  town  for  a  visit  of  a  few  hours. 
Fo  Hi  had  no  doubt  that  he  would  be  pre- 
sented to  His  Excellency,  the  Minister,  on  the 
day  of  his  arrival,  would  be  complimented 
for  his  exemplary  conduct,  and  that  he 
would  then  be  promoted  to  the  post  which 
he  had  so  honestly  earned.  And  so  strongly 
was  he  moved  by  these  expectations  that, 
for  three  nights  before  the  day  of  the  Min- 
ister's arrival,  he  did  not  sleep  a  wink. 

At     length    the     great    dignitary    came,   in 


A  FRIGHTFUL  CATASTROPHE.  65 

grand  style,  in  a  coach  drawn  by  four  white 
horses  at  full  gallop.  By  order  of  the  Di- 
rector-in-chief  the  road  by  which  he  was  to 
enter  the  town  was  strewn  with  leaves  and 
flowers.  But  by  some  accident,  a  large 
branch  of  some  tree  had  been  thrown  in  the 
street  and  now  lay  there  concealed  by  the 
leaves.  The  coachman  who  was  driving  the 
gallopping  steeds  did  not  see  the  obstacle, 
and  the  carriage,  suddenly  arrested,  jolted  ter- 
ribly, and  His  Excellency,  the  Minister,  who 
was  innocently  looking  out  of  the  window, 
was  shot  out  forcibly  right  upon  a  heap  of 
stones,  where  he  lay  sprawled  at  full  length 
as  if  he  had  fallen  into  a  feather  bed.  As 
luck  would  have  it,  this  particular  heap  of 
stones  was  in  Fo  Hi's  jurisdiction. 

His  Excellency  took  no  time  to  admire 
the  art  with  which  the  heap  was  constructed. 
He  picked  himself  up  bleeding,  but  dignified. 

At  the   report   of  his  horrible  fall,    the  whole 
5 


66  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

village,  which  was  awaiting  his  approach  a 
little  further  on,  raised  a  shout  of  dismay 

.and  ran  to  the  spot.  But  the  Minister  beck- 
oned to  them  to  be  quiet,  after  which  he 
listened  to  the  five  speeches  which  had  been 
prepared  for  him,  and  replied  with  a  self- 
possession  which  was  praised  in  all  the  offi- 
cial gazettes.  He  then  went  to  the  village 
hotel,  where  all  the  government  officials 
passed  in  procession  before  his  august 
countenance,  whose  majestic  grace  was 
heightened  by  a  pretty  plaster  of  English 
taffeta.  These  rascally  Englishmen  manage 
to  get  their  goods  in  everywhere. 

*  Fo  Hi  appeared  in  his  turn,  bearing  him- 
self with  a  modest  and  yet  confident 
air,  in  his  suit  of  blue  embroidered  with 
silver.  As  he  was  passing,  an  official  of 
high  rank  bent  towards  His  Excellency,  the 
Minister,  and  pointed  the  young  man  out 
to  him.  . 


A  FRIGHTFUL  CATASTROPHE.  67 

"  Ah !  is  this  Mr.  Fo  Hi  ? "  asked  the 
dignitary. 

"  Yes,  Your  Excellency,"  answered  the 
young  man,  blushing  to  his  very  ears. 

"  Very  well,  sir,  you  shall  hear  from  me," 
replied  the  Minister,  and  the  procession 
passed  on. 

That  night  seemed  incomparably  long  to 
our  young  hero,  who  lay  wide  awake,  haunt- 
ed by  dreams,  brighter  and  more  brilliant- 
ly decorated  than  his  best  suit  The  next 
morning  he  was  ordered  to  report  at  the 
house  of  the  Director  in  chief,  and  obeyed 
as  speedily  as  he  could. 

"Sir,"  said  the  Director  to  him,  putting 
his  hand  into  his  vest  in  an  exceedingly 
dignified  manner,  "  His  Excellency,  the  Min- 
ister, who  is  magnanimity  itself,  has  seen 
fit  to  give  to  you  and  to  the  public  a  new 
proof  of  the  greatness  of  his  soul.  He  does 
not  discharge  you." 


68  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

At  these  words  Fo  Hi  started  back  in 
astonishment,  and  the  Director-in-chief  con- 
tinued : 

"  I  see  very  plainly,  sir,  that  this  mark 
of  magnanimity  astonishes  you.  I  confess 
that  it  is  the  very  excess  of  kindness,  and  is 
quite  unheard  of.  But  finally,  His  Excel- 
lency grants  you  his  pardon." 

"  Well !  but  what  have  I  done  ?  "  exclaimed 
poor  Fo  Hi. 

His  Honor,  the  Director-in-chief,  let  his 
hand  drop  from  his  vest  in  amazement,  and 
casting  upon  the  young  man  an  indignant 
look,  said  severely  : 

"  What  have  you  done  ?  You  dare  to  ask 
such  a  question,  do  you  ?  The  stone  which 
so  cruelly  wounded  the  august  cheek  of 
His  Excellency,  the  Minister,  was  sharp  and 
pointed.  Now,  the  regulations  of  the  De- 
partment provide  that  all  the  stones  shall 
be  carefully  rounded.  How  did  it  happen  ? " 


A  FRIGHTFUL  CATASTROPHE.  69 

"Your  Honor  will  be  so  good  as  to 
pardon  me  if  I  interrupt  you,  but  the  reg- 
ulations of  which  you  speak  say  exactly 
the  contrary." 

"  Well,  this  is  pleasant ! "  exclaimed  the 
dignitary,  with  a  bitter  sneer.  "  You  give  me 
the  lie,  do  you  ?  You  have  a  peculiar  idea 
of  the  duties  of  a  public  officer !  I  have 
read  some  of  the  reports,  sir,  which  you 
send  us  daily,  and  I  can  tell  you  that  if 
you  had  attended  to  your  work  instead  of 
making  phrases,  all  this  would  not  have 
happened.  Your  business,  sir,  is  to  count 
stones  and  not  to  quote  Sanskrit" 

"  It  was  not  worth  while  then  to  make 
me  learn  it,"  muttered  Fo  Hi,  in  a  tone  of 
deep  injury. 

"  What  do  you  say  ?  I  really  believe  you 
are  arguing  the  matter  with  me!  His  Ex- 
cellency, the  Minister,  can  forgive  a  fault, 
however  serious  it  may  be.  But  for  my 


70  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

part,  I  can  not  overlook  an  impertinence.  I 
suspend  you  from  your  office  for  six  weeks, 
without  pay.  Go,  sir,  and  let  this  be  a  les- 
son to  you." 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE    TIDE    TURNS. 

Fo  Hi  left  the  presence  of  the  Director- 
in-chief  with  the  dazed  and  stupid  air  of  a 
man  who  has  just  been  dealt  a  heavy  blow 
on  the  head.  His  eyes  had  a  vacant  stare, 
and  his  ears  rang  strangely.  From  his  ab- 
sent manner,  he  might  have  been  thought 
tipsy.  But  he  made  his  way  to  his  room, 
and  found  there  awaiting  him  a  letter  from 
his  father,  which  ran  as  follows: 

"  My  dear  son : — We  are  all  well  here. 
Your  two  sisters  have  made  me  a  grand- 
father on  the  same  day  and  at  nearly  the 
same  hour.  You  have  two  very  pretty  little 
nieces,  who  bear  a  wonderful  resemblance  to 
their  grandfather.  I  confess  that  a  boy 
would  have  suited  me  much  better,  for  you 


72  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

would,  of  course,  have  taken  him  under 
your  protection,  and  have  advanced  him  to 
the  highest  positions.  I  can  see  his  fortune 
already  made.  But  nothing  is  lost  by  wait- 
ing. I  shall  order  a  little  nephew  for  you. 
Your  sisters  will  be  willing,  I  am  sure. 

"  Your  brother-in-law  Pe-ka-o  is  doing 
splendidly.  He  has  had  very  good  crops, 
and  has  just  bought  a  fine  piece  of  ground 
which  he  has  had  his  eye  upon  for  a  long 
time.  The  good  fellow  is  rapidly  getting 
rich,  and,  by  the  favor  of  Heaven,  will  be- 
come one  of  the  wealthiest  farmers  in  the 
country. 

"  I  am  thoroughly  satisfied  with  your 
other  brother-in-law,  Chi-kau-go.  The  boy 
is  not  such  a  blockhead  as  I  had  supposed. 
He  has  a  genius  for  business.  You,  who 
are  in  every  way  so  superior  to  him,  would 
not  think  much  of  his  ability,  but  it  is  just 
the  thing  for  the  grocery  trade.  The  amount 


THE  TIDE  TURNS.  73 

of  our  sales  has  nearly  doubled  in  the  course 
of  six  months.  You  would  not  know  your 
father's  shop,  for  it  is  now  a  very  fine 
store,  with  bright  glass  windows,  in  which 
the  passers-by  can  see  themselves.  Our 
neighbors  are  bursting  with  jealousy,  which 
gives  me  a  great  deal  of  satisfaction. 

"  My  dear  boy,  I  am  as  happy  as  a  man 
can  be  on  earth.  But  you  are  still  my 
greatest  joy  and  my  highest  pride.  It  is 
you  who  make  the  family  illustrious.  We 
owe  it  to  you  that  the  name  of  Fo  Hi  will 
be  spoken  in  the  palaces  of  Ministers,  and 
will  even  fall  upon  the  sacred  ears  of  the 
Emperor.  We  will  all  shine  in  the  radiance 
which  you  will  shed  upon  us.  But  accept 
this  advice  from  your  old  father :  Don't 
be  dazzled  by  prosperity.  Don't  spend  your 
money  foolishly.  Just  send  it  to  me.  I 
will  invest  it  for  you  in  our  business,  and 
it  will  bring  you  in  from  eight  to  ten  per 


74  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

cent.     This    is  a   good   ending    for    my    letter, 
isn't  it  ? 

"Adieu,  my  dear  son.  We  all  embrace  you 
v.'itli  the  warmest  love,  and  pray  that  fortune 
may  always  be  faithful  to  you. 

"  Your  father,         Fo  Hi." 

As  he  finished  reading,  the  young  man 
impatiently  crushed  the  letter  in  his  hand, 
and  exclaimed  :  "  Money  !  Money  to  invest ! 
Fathers  have  strange  ideas,  to  be  sure!  I 
wonder  if  he  thinks  that  I  live  on  nut  shells ! 
I  have  not  even  a  mouthful  for  my  dinner 
to-night." 

He  might  easily  have  found  shopkeepers 
who  would  have  trusted  him,  or  some  of  his 
comrades  would  have  loaned  him  a  little 
money.  But,  as  I  have  already  said,  he  had 
not  as  much  breadth  of  mind  as  he  had 
loftiness  of  character.  He  was  proud,  and 
did  not  want  to  be  in  debt  to  any  one.  He 
preferred  to  pawn  his  property. 


THE  TIDE  TURNS.  75 

Now  in  the  neighboring  village  there  was 
a  philanthropic  institution  which  did  poor 
beggars  the  favor  to  advance  funds  on  good 
clothing  at  the  rate  of  twelve  per  cent.  It 
was  gradually  growing  rich  off  the  spoil  of 
these  wretches,  but  no  one  could  take  it  ill, 
for  every  year  the  surplus  of  its  profits  was 
turned  into  the  almshouse  treasury.  Thus  it 
drove  people  into  the  poorhouse  for  the  pleas- 
ure of  providing  for  them  there.  It  carried 
on  the  business  of  usury  in  the  spirit  of 
charity. 

To  this  obliging  pawnbroker  our  hero  went 
in  his  distress.  He  was  very  much  ashamed 
the  first  time  he  went.  As  he  entered  the 
door  he  hung  his  head  and  blushed,  and 
looked  about  stealthily  to  see  if  any  one 
was  observing  him.  But  he  soon  recognized 
the  watch  and  charms  of  his  Inspector  in 
the  hands  of  one  of  the  clerks,  and  the  sight 
gave  him  courage.  He  thought :  "  I  am  not 


76  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

alone,  then."  One  by  one  then  he  pledged 
all  his  things  except  what  he  actually  needed. 
Even  his  uniform,  his  best  blue  uniform  em- 
broidered with  silver,  was  transferred  from  the 
wardrobe  where  it  slept  carefully,  folded  be- 
tween two  napkins,  to  the  pawnbroker's  store- 
room. Here  it  was  hung  up  on  an  ignoble 
nail,  like  the  commonest  of  old  clothes,  be- 
tween the  stuffed  ape  of  a  mountebank  and 
the  greasy  cloak  of  a  fakir.  To  such  base 
uses  may  we  come  at  last ! 

The  last  day  of  the  month,  the  very  day 
on  which  his  suspension  was  to  come  to  an 
end,  Fo  Hi  received  an  invitation  to  attend 
an  evening  party  at  the  house  of  his  In- 
spector. But  he  was  unable  to  go  because 
he  had  no  uniform.  His  absence  was  ac- 
cordingly noticed.  The  Inspector  wrote  to 
the  Auditor  about  it,  who  in  turn  forwarded 
the  complaint  to  the  Controller,  and  this 
official  immediately  sent  for  Fo  Hi. 


THE  TIDE  TURNS.  77 

"  Sir,"  he  said  to  the  young  man  in  a  se- 
vere tone,  "  it  is  very  plain  that  you  are 
incorrigible.  You  seem  to  take  delight  in 
exciting  the  displeasure  of  your  superiors. 
The  Inspector  requests  me  to  ask  an  expla- 
nation of  your  conduct  in  an  important  par- 
ticular. Why,  sir,  did  you  deliberately  absent 
yourself  from  the  ball,  to  which  your  supe- 
rior officer  in  the  Department  did  you  the 
great  honor  to  invite  you  ? " 

There  was  a  long  pause,  during  which 
Fo  Hi  was  intently  studying  the  designs 
traced  on  the  floor  of  the  apartment.  He 
would  be  killed  on  the  spot  rather  than  con- 
fess the  sad  truth.  But  at  last  the  Con- 
troller broke  the  silence  by  going  on  an- 
grily: 

"  You  don't  answer,  eh  ?  Well,  sure 
enough,  what  answer  could  you  give  ?  What 
excuse  could  you  make  for  such  singular 
behavior,  which  so  clearly  shows  a  spirit  of 


78  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

insubordination  ?  You  need  not  suppose  that 
the  Inspector  looked  for  your  presence  to 
add  to  the  attractions  of  his  party.  No,  sir. 
A  soiree  given  by  a  superior  is  always  a 
brilliant  affair,  and  it  would  be,  even  if  no 
one  were  there.  It  can  easily  dispense  with 
everything  in  the  way  of  ordinary  attraction, 
without  detracting  from  its  dignity  and  brill- 
iancy. At  the  Inspector's  ball  there  were 
neither  orchestra  nor  refreshments.  But  was 
it  any  less  enjoyable,  I  should  like  to  know  ? 
I  was  there,  sir.  I  enjoyed  myself,  sir.  It 
was  my  duty  to  do  so.  And  it  was  your 
duty  also.  But  you  have  failed  in  all  your 
duties.  And  why  ?  Out  of  contempt,  I  have 
not  the  least  doubt !  " 

"But,  sir!"  stammered  the  poor  young 
fellow. 

"  You  are  answering  me !  I  declare,  you 
are  answering  me  !  Was  there  ever  anything 
more  disrespectful ! " 


THE  TIDE  TURNS.  79 

"  But  you  asked  me  a  question,"  exclaimed 
Fo  Hi,  now  exasperated. 

"Away,  sir!  away  this  moment.  I  shall 
report  your  outrageous  conduct  to  the  proper 
authorities." 

A  scathing  report  was  forthwith  sent  to 
the  Minister  at  Pekin,  in  which  the  discharge 
of  Mr.  Fo  Hi  junior  was  positively  de- 
manded. The  Superintendent  of  the  office, 
who  received  the  report,  endorsed  it  carelessly 
on  the  margin  with  a  note  of  approval,  and 
sent  it,  with  a  number  of  others  endorsed  in 
the  same  way,  to  the  Secretary  whose  busi- 
ness it  was  to  prepare  replies.  Now  it  hap- 
pened that  this  official  was  just  at  this  time 
very  much  pressed  with  work.  So,  in  his 
haste  and  confusion,  he  got  two  of  the  doc- 
uments mixed,  and  in  writing  the  answers 
he  inserted  in  the  one  intended  for  Fo  Hi 
the  name  of  a  poor  wretch  who  had  applied 
for  a  promotion,  and  in  the  letter  which 


So  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

was  really  intended  for  this  unlucky  wight 
he  inserted  the  name  of  Fo  Hi.  The  Su- 
perintendent signed  both  letters  without  read- 
ing them,  the  Minister  countersigned  them, 
and  two  months  later  the  Director-in -chief 
of  the  Department  of  Roads  at  Pi-ho  re- 
ceived an  answer  to  his  report.  But  as  he 
read  the  first  words  of  the  communication 
he  rubbed  his  eyes  in  amazement.  Then  he 
scratched  his  ear  and  fell  into  a  profound 
revery. 

"  Who  would  have  believed  it  ?  "  he  mut- 
tered. "  This  little  Fo  Hi  is  the  godson  of 
a  third  cousin  of  an  .Imperial  Councillor. 
They  compliment  him  and  appoint  him  Con- 
troller of  the  first  class.  His  patron  must 
have  a  great  deal  of  influence.  I  have  made 
a  mistake ! " 

And  thereupon  he  took  his  cane  and  went 
as  straight  as  an  arrow  to  Fo  Hi's  apart- 
ments. He  mounted  nimbly  the  six  flights 


THE  TIDE  TURNS.  81 

of  stairs,  entered  without  knocking,  and 
grasping  the  young  fellow's  hand,  exclaimed : 
"  Well !  Good  morning,  my  dear  friend  ! 
I  wanted  to  bring  you  some  good  news  in 
person.  For  a  long  time  I  have  recognized 
and  appreciated  your  worth,  but  until  the 
present  moment  I  have  been  unable  to  man- 
ifest my  appreciation  in  any  substantial  way. 
You  see,  sir,  you  were  rather  young.  But  the 
Minister  has  at  last  yielded  to  my  urgent 
entreaties,  and  rewarded  your  services.  You 
are  appointed  Controller  of  the  first  class  in 
one  of  the  important  cities  in  the  south,  at 
Song-Kong-Chou.  You  are  to  leave  in  two 
days.  Possibly  you  are  not  very  well  sup- 
plied with  money.  But  here  is  an  indem- 
nity of  one  hundred  taels,  which  I  present 
you  from  certain  funds  at  my  disposal.  Go 
to  the  bank  and  have  it  cashed  to-morrow. 
They  will  pay  it  at  sight.  Accept  my 

sincerest     congratulations,    my    young    friend, 
6 


82  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

and  do  not  forget  that  I  shall  always  be 
delighted  to  hear  of  your  gcod  fortune.  I 
have  started  you  on  the  road  to  success, 
and  you  may  be  sure  that  I  will  follow 
your  future  with  interest.  Take  heart,  my 
good  fellow.  Adieu  !  " 

But  such  was  Fo  Hi's  bewilderment  that 
he  could  not  say  a  word.  "  He  is  a  very 
deep  fellow ! "  thought  the  Director,  who 
mistook  his  silence  for  reserve.  "  But  then  he 
is  going  a  good  way  off— a  good  way  off ! " 

But  from  this  time  Fo  Hi  saw  around  him 
nothing  but  smiling  faces  and  friendly  looks. 
His  comrades  were  quite  overpowering  in 
their  marks  of  esteem,  and  his  superiors 
paid  court  to  him  as  if  they  wanted  to  beg 
his  pardon  for  the  past.  His  uniform,  em- 
broidered with  silver,  he  now  redeemed,  paid 
all  his  debts,  and  slept  like  a  man  whose 
dreams  are  no  longer  haunted  by  his  cred- 
itors. 


THE  TIDE  TURNS.  83 

The  day  of  his  departure,  he  went  to  take 
leave  of  his  Director-in-chief,  and  during  the 
interview  said  to  him  pleasantly : 

"  Really,  sir,  I  can  tell  you  all  about  it 
now.  The  reason  I  did  not  go  to  the  ball 
to  which  you  so  kindly  invited  me,  was 
simply  that  my  uniform  was  in  pawn." 

"  Why,  dear  me ! "  exclaimed  the  dignitary 
regretfully.  "If  I  had  only  known  it!" 

He  gave  his  young  protege  a  long  and 
hearty  clasp  of  the  hand,  and  even  conde- 
scended to  accompany  him  to  the  carriage 
where  at  parting  he  held  him  up  as  an  ex- 
ample to  his  comrades,  all  of  whom  had 
come  to  bid  him  farewell.  And  thus  Fo  Hi 
took  his  departure  with  a  heart  full  of  hap- 
piness. 

"  My  poor  father !  How  happy  he  will 
be ! "  he  said  to  himself,  as  he  rode  along. 
You  see  he  was  at  bottom  a  good  fellow. 
All  these  sudden  honors  might  excite  his 


84  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

brain,  but   they   could  not   corrupt  his    heart. 

The  next  day,  however,  all  the  Surveyors, 
Controllers  and  Auditors  at  Pi-ho  received 
an  order  to  report  at  the  office  of  the  In- 
spector, where  that  dignitary,  in  a  quiet  but 
firm  voice,  read  the  following  circular  from 
His  Honor,  the  Director-in- chief: 

"  I  have  learned  that  certain  of  the  em- 
ployees in  my  Department  do  not  hesitate  to 
compromise  their  uniform  by  putting  it  in 
pawn.  This  is  a  very  serious  breach  of  dis- 
cipline. It  is  highly  improper  that  a  costume 
which  the  people  .are  accustomed  to  regard 
as  nothing  less  than  an  emanation  from  His 
Imperial  Majesty  himself,  should  be  hung 
up  promiscuously  with  the  rags  of  the  beg- 
gar. Mr.  Inspector,  I  order  you  to  give 
notice  to  all  your  subordinates  that  if  I  hear 
again  of  such  scandalous  conduct,  I  shall  feel 
compelled  to  visit  the  full  severity  of  the 
Department  upon  the  head  of  the  offender." 


THE  TIDE  TURNS.  85 

When  he  had  finished  reading  the  paper, 
the  Inspector  folded  it  up  respectfully  and 
added  on  his  own  account,  by  way  of  com- 
mentary :  "  I  trust,  gentlemen,  that  you  will 
conform  to  the  views  of  His  Honor  the 
Director-in-chief.  They  are  at  once  just  and 
paternal.  I  say  they  are  just,  for  they  bear, 
like  everything  which  His  Honor  does,  the 
stamp  of  justice  itself.  But  I  add  further, 
his  views  are  paternal,  for  His  Honor  is 
desirous  —  I  have  it  from  his  own  lips,  and 
I  am  happy  as  well  as  proud  to  repeat  his 
words  to  you  —  yes,  His  Honor  has  himself 
condescended  to  tell  me,  with  his  own 
mouth,  that  he  is  desirous  that  his  subordi- 
nates should  never  be  subjected  to  the  an- 
noyance of  being  deprived  of  a  costume 
which  is  the  ornament  of  their  several 
offices,  and  the  honor  of  the  body  to  which 
they  have  the  honor  to  belong.  I  am 
further  directed  by  His  Honor  the  Director- 


86  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

in-chief  to  listen  to  any  observations  which 
you  may  possibly  wish  to  make  on  this 
matter,  and  to  transmit  them  to  him.  I  have, 
however,  answered  for  you,  in  advance,  to 
His  Honor.  I  have  assured  him  that  it  were 
impossible  that  any  one  could  oppose  an  order 
so  reasonable  and  so  explicit,  and  — " 

"  Pardon,  Mr.  Inspector,"  interrupted  a 
very  young  man.  "  When  we  pawn  our 
clothes  it  is  certainly  not  for  our  own 
pleasure." 

"  No,  sir,  it  is  not,  for  it  is  a  violation 
of  the  rules,  and  that,  to  be  sure,  is  no 
pleasure.  Or  rather,  it  is  a  pleasure  for 
undutiful  minds.  But  the  Department  has  its 
eye  upon  their^  and  if  it  should  be  necessary  ' 
will  treat  them  with  a  just  severity.  Let 
them  take  notice !  Gentlemen,  you  are  dis- 
missed." 

But  meanwhile  Mr.  Fo  Hi  junior  was 
posting  along  the  road  to  Song-Kong-Chou. 


THE  TIDE  TURNS.  87 

A  light  heart  goes  with  a  full  purse.  His 
journey  was  delightful.  He  surrendered  him- 
self without  reserve  to  the  pleasure  of  sur- 
veying the  strange  scenes  which  the  country 
offered  to  his  eyes.  At  evening  he  rested 
from  his  fatigue  and  dined  heartily  at  some 
good  inn,  where  he  also  drank  and  joked 
with  the  servants  to  his  heart's  content. 
Easy  digestions  make  happy  dispositions. 
One  day  during  a  halt  for  refreshments,  he 
noticed  at  the  door  of  the  inn  an  old  man, 
bald  and  pale,  whose  singularly  dignified  and 
yet  shabby  appearance  attracted  his  attention. 
He  accordingly  went  up  to  him,  and  as  trav- 
ellers usually  do,  asked  him  whence  he 
came. 

"  From  Song-Kong-Chou,"  said  the  old 
man. 

"  Is  that  so  ! "  exclaimed  Fo  Hi.  "  Why, 
that  is  just  where  I  am  going!  I  am  ap- 
pointed Controller  of  the  first  class  in  the 


88  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

Department   of  Roads    at   Song-Kong-Chou." 
The  old  man  in  his  turn  was  now  very  much 
surprised,   and  looked  so    sadly    at  our    hero 
that  the   young  man  in  pity  asked   him  if  he 
had  any  great   trouble. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    STORY    OF     THE     SHABBY    OLD    MAN. 

"  ALAS  !  "  answered  the  old  man.  "  I  see 
now.  You  are  to  fill  the  position  for 
which  I  applied,  and  which  was  due  to  me 
for  so  many  reasons.  I  haven't  any  ill-will 
to  you,  sir,  for  you  are  ignorant  of  the 
injury  which  you  have  done  me.  But  the 
sight  of  you  revives  the  sense  of  my  mis- 
fortune and  aggravates  my  grief." 

And  at  this  the  old  man  burst  into  tears. 
The  great  drops  fell  from  his  eyes  and 
rolled  silently  down  his  haggard  cheeks. 
The  young  man  was  deeply  moved  by  this 
spectacle,  and  asked  the  old  man  to  take 
dinner  with  him,  after  which,  when  the 
dessert  was  brought  on,  he  induced  him  to 
tell  his  sorrowful  story. 
(89) 


90  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

"  It  isn't  a  long  story, "  said  the  shabby 
old  man.  "I  am  the  godson  of  the  third 
cousin  of  an  influential  personage.  Under 
the  patronage  of  my  godfather  I  got  into 
the  Department  of  Roads.  Oh !  how  much 
better  it  would  have  been  for  me  if  I  had 
remained  in  my  father's  shop  and  learned 
his  trade!  Would  to  God  that  I  had  been 
a  shoemaker,  instead  of  roving  about  on 
the  public  highways !  The  next  thing  I  did, 
sir,  was  to  get  married ;  but  it  would  have 
been  better  for  me  if  I  had  tied  a  stone 
about  my  neck  and  jumped  into  the  river. 
My  wife  was  a  good  woman.  I  haven't  any 
fault  to  find  with  her,  and  even  now  I 
don't  regret  that  I  married  her.  She  has 
shared  all  my  misfortunes,  and  has  helped 
to  make  them  more  endurable.  But  she 
had  very  little  in  her  own  right.  You  see 
it  was  purely  what  they  call  a  love-match. 
With  provoking  regularity  she  presented  me 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  SHABBY  OLD  MAN.  91 

with  a    child   every    year,  until    now    I   have 
seven,    sir. 

"With  the  first  we  were  overjoyed,  and 
gave  thanks  to  Tao  who  had  blessed  our 
union.  The  second  was  not  unwelcome ;  at 
the  third  we  began  to  think,  and  we  were 
both  wild  with  vexation  when  the  last  one 
made  its  appearance.  We  were  unable  to 
feed  the  other  six  properly,  and  now  it 
seemed  as  if  we  must  literally  die  of  star- 
vation. You  know  the  salary  which  we  get, 
and  you  can  see  for  yourself  whether  nine 
persons  can  live  on  it. 

"  But  my  wife  is  a  very  courageous  woman. 
So  she  took  it  into  her  head  to  earn  some- 
thing. She  opened  a  little  millinery  store. 
Her  two  older  daughters  helped  her  as  well 
as  they  could,  and  the  work  began  to  come 
in  very  well.  But  in  some  way  or  other, 
I  don't  know  how,  the  Director-in-chief 
was  informed  that  the  wife  of  one  of 


92  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI.  * 

his  subordinates  was  working  with  her 
hands  for  a  living.  Ha  immediately  sent 
for  me  and  reprimanded  me  sharply,  saying 
that  I  was  bringing  disgrace  upon  the  De- 
partment. 

"'But,  sir/  I  said  to  him,  'I  have  chil- 
dren ! ' 

" '  What  on  earth  did  you  have  them  for  ?  ' 
he  replied,  gruffly.  '  A  public  officer  ought 
not  to  have  more  children  than  he  can 
feed/ 

"  He  was  partly  right,  I  admit.  But  after 
all,  these  poor  little  things  had  not  asked 
to  be  born;  it  was  not  their  fault  that 
they  were  here.  We  certainly  could  not 
kill  them  for  the  sake  of  the  Department. 

"  I  tried  timidly  to  offer  the  Director  some 
good  reasons  for  our  course.  But  he  as- 
sured me,  in  a  peremptory  tone  which  ad- 
mitted of  no  reply,  that  I  must  take  my 
choice.  If  I  would  not  obey,  he  should 


THE  S7ORY  OF  THE  SHABBY  OLD  MAX.     93 

give    me    my    discharge.     Now   what    was   I 
to  do  ?     I    had    already  been    in  the    Depart- 
ment   for     fifteen    years,    and     if   I    were  dis- 
charged   I   would   lose     all     my    claim    to   a 
pension    for    which    I   had  already   labored    so 
long.     What  employment  could  I  have  found 
elsewhere,    if    I     had     abandoned     the    place 
which  I  had   taken  so  much  trouble  to  get  ? 
I   was  too   old   to     take  any   chinces,    and  I 
was    aware     of    my   incapacity    for   business. 
Therefore    I    submitted.     My   wife,  with   tears 
in  her  eyes,  sent  away  her  customers,   and  I 
went  on    in  the   old   rut,  for  the  sole  reason 
that     I  had   been   there    for  fifteen    years.     I 
will     not     tell    you    all     the   humiliations    to 
which  I   have    been     subjected     in    order   to 
get  an     increase   of  salary.     Fifty  taels  is    of 
itself    a    small    thing,   but     even     that  small 
amount   would  have  saved  us  from  starvation. 
I   renounced  all   my  opinions  and   tastes,  and 
made    a    point    of  studying    the     weaknesses 


94  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

of  my  superiors,  and  flattering  their  vanity. 
My  wife  waited  humbly  upon  their  wives, 
and  submitted  quietly  to  all  their  petty 
exactions.  She  voluntarily  put  herself  in 
chains,  which  grew  tighter  every  day,  with- 
out the  slightest  show  of  gratitude  from 
these  fine  ladies  for  her  services.  She  was 
their  servant-girl  minus  the  wages.  I  blush 
yet  when  I  think  of  these  indignities.  My 
heart  is  full  of  the  mortifications  which  we 
have  had  to  put  up  with,  to  no  purpose. 
Oh !  if  I  could  only  spit  in  their  faces ! 
I  have  a  kind  heart,  sir ;  I  would  not  harm 
a  fly.  But  if  I  had  now  in  my  hands 
one  of  these  heartless  men,  who  take  so 
indifferently  the  injuries  which  we  have 
suffered  at  their  hands,  I  should  be  de- 
lighted to  crush  the  life  out  of  him  in  my 
wrath.  I  would  say  to  him :  '  There,  you 
wretch !  Take  that,  for  your  consequential 
airs  and  your  bitter  sneers.  There!  take 


THE  STOR  Y  OF  THE  SHABB  Y  OLD  MAN.  95 

that,  and  that,  and  that,  for  your  scorn, 
your  injurious  reports,  your  absurd  fits  of 
rage ! ' "  The  old  man  clenched  his  fists 
savagely  as  he  said  this,  the  blood  rushed 
into  his  face  and  flamed  from  his  cheeks, 
and  his  eyes  flashed  with  excitement,  But 
presently  he  drank  a  cup  of  tea,  gradually 
cooled  down,  and  went  on  with  his  story 
in  a  calmer  tone: 

"  At  last  one  day  we  found  ourselves  at 
the  end  of  all  our  resources,  surrounded  by 
our  children  crying  with  hunger.  We  had 
exhausted  the  means  of  all  our  relations 
and  friends,  and  we  were  head  over  ears  in 
debt.  My  wife  and  I  looked  wildly  and 
desperately  into  each  other's  faces.  Then  I 
thought  of  my  godfather,  who  fifteen  years 
before  had  been  the  cause  of  all  my  mis- 
fortunes by  getting  me  my  position.  He 
felt  that  he  had  done  all  that  could  be  ex- 
pected of  him  at  that  time,  and  had  never 


96  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

replied  to  my  letters.  I  now  made  a  last 
attempt  to  attract  his  attention.  I  sent  him 
a  petition  which  it  seemed  to  me  ought  to 
have  softened  a  heart  of  stone.  But  fif- 
teen days  after  I  received  notice  that  I  was 
discharged. 

"  Yes,  sir,  I  was  discharged,  after  fifteen 
years  of  faithful  service !  Discharged  for  no 
reason  which  had  any  show  of  sense !  His 
Excellency,  the  Minister,  charged  that  I  had 
exhibited  most  remarkable  insolence  to  my 
superiors !  Think  of  it !  I,  insolent !  alas !  I 
had  been  only  too  polite,  too  humble !  My 
wife  was  in  delicate  health,  and  you  can  im- 
agine what  a  blow  this  was  to  the  poor 
creature.  She  immediately  took  to  her  bed 
with  a  raging  fever,  but  J  was  compelled  to 
leave  her  sick  and  destitute  of  money.  I 
am  now  on  my  way  to  Pekin,  to  beg  an 
audience  of  the  Minister,  to  throw  myself  at 
his  feet,  and  to  beseech  him  to  grant  me 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  SHABBY  OLD  MAN.    97 

maintenance  for  my  old  age,  and  life  for  my 
family." 

Fo  Hi  was  deeply  affected  by  this  tale. 
He  opened  his  purse  and  said  to  the  old 
man : 

"  Here !  This  is  Government  money.  You 
have  certainly  a  better  claim  to  it  than  I, 
who  have  received  it  without  knowing  how 
or  why.  Half  of  it  is  enough  to  enable 
me  to  finish  my  journey.  Please  accept  the 
rest.  It  is  between  comrades,  you  know." 

This  offer  was  made  with  so  much  frank 
cordiality  that  the  old  man  had  not  the 
courage  to  refuse.  So  he  took  the  money 
and  exclaimed :  "  You  are  saving  my  life. 
May  you  be  as  happy  as  you  deserve ! 
There  are  still  some  good-hearted  people  in 
the  public  service  !  " 

"  Oh,  I  don't  pretend  to  very  much  in 
that  line ! "  said  the  young  man  modestly ; 
and  grasping  the  poor  fellow's  hand,  he  took 


98  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

his  seat  in  the   coach.     Two  days    later    he 

arrived    at  Song-Kong-Chou,     and    here    we 

shall   meet  him    again    in     the    next    chap- 
ter. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

SOME    GOOD    RESOLUTIONS. 

SoNG-KoNG-Cnou  is  one  of  the  finest 
towns  in  the  south  of  China.  It  is  built  on 
a  hill,  and  the  houses  descend  along  the 
gentle  slope  to  the  broad  plain  below,  which 
is  itself  dotted  with  residences,  scattered 
here  and  there  amid  fruitful  gardens  which 
from  the  distance,  look  like  so  many  great 
baskets  of  verdure.  From  the  highest  point 
of  the  town  the  view  extends  over  a  wide 
and  rich  landscape.  One  sees  vast  rice- 
fields  intersected  by  canals  whose  waters 
sparkle  in  the  sunlight  like  long  silver 
threads.  Farms  and  villas  springing  up 
here  and  there  throughout  the  country  re- 
lieve and  heighten  the  charm  of  the  scene 

with    their  air  of  rustic  neatness.     Along  the 
(99) 


loo  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

banks  of  the  river  the  eye  discovers  spread- 
ing meadows,  great  green  spots  in  which 
thousands  of  purple  flowers  are  blooming. 
The  vision  is  arrested  by  a  long  range  of 
hills,  beyond  which  the  horizon  widens  until 
it  is  lost  in  a  shimmering  haze. 

"What  a  lovely  spot!"  cried  Fo  Hi, 
charmed  with  the  view.  "  One  ought  to  be 
happy  here,  certainly !  " 

He  was  installed  in  his  new  office,  with 
all  the  fitting  solemnities,  by  His  Honor  the 
Director-in-chief.  All  the  employees  who 
were  to  work  under  his  direction  were  pre- 
sented to  him,  and  he  received  them  with 
that  air  of  dignified  benevolence  which  flour- 
ishes so  naturally  on  the  faces  of  superior 
officials.  The  same  day  he  paid  visits  to 
all  his  departmental  chiefs,  and  to  all  the 
upper  officers  of  the  other  Departments ;  and 
when  evening  came  it  was  with  great  sat- 
isfaction that  he  reckoned  that  in  his  day's 


SOME  GOOD  RESOLUTIONS.  101 

journey  he  had  made  one  hundred  and 
fourteen  reverences  at  the  rate  of  two  rev- 
erences to  each  visit.  And  finally,  he  went 
to  sleep,  with  his  spinal  column  somewhat 
fatigued,  but  at  any  rate  very  well  content- 
ed with  himself. 

Another  thing  which  he  did  at  the  be- 
ginning of  his  new  labors  was  to  draw  up 
a  code  of  conduct  from  which  he  determined 
never  to  deviate.  And  to  fasten  it  more 
deeply  in  his  memory,  he  reduced  it  to 
aphorisms,  which  he  took  the  trouble  to 
write  down  in  the  form  of  verses: 
I. 

To  thy  superiors  homage  pay, 

And   them   profoundly   do    thou   greet . 

II. 

All   those  who    are   beneath    thy    sway, 
Harshly   and   mercilessly   treat. 

III. 

No   zeal   nor   energy  display, 
Nor  work   with   unbecoming  heat. 


102  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

IV. 

Refrain  from  wedlock  till   thou'rt  gray, 
Nor  taste   of  love's   delicious   sweet. 

V. 

Temper  thy  taste  for  all  things   gay  ; 
Be  in  indulgences  discreet. 

VI. 

Let  bread   and   water  be   thy  stay, 
Nor  rice-wine  cause  unsteady   feet. 

VII, 

Think   thou  of  nothing   night   or  day 
But   thy   advancement   to    complete     - 

Fo  Hi  wanted  to  increase  the  number  to 
ten,  and  then  to  sign  his  name  to  the 
paper.  But  just  then  he  could  think  of 
no  other  injunction.  He  little  thought  that 
events  would  soon  furnish  him  with  the 
material  out  of  which  to  complete  his  dec- 
alogue/ But  he  who  reads  will  see,  as  the 
proverb  says. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

HOW   FO    HI    KEPT   HIS   POSITION. 

IN  the  mean  time  the  shabby  old  man 
had  arrived  at  Pekin.  For  fourteen  days 
in  succession,  he  had  gone  every  morning 
to  the  palace  of  the  Minister,  and  waited 
in  the  ante-room.  But  the  only  effect  of 
this  was  that  he  became  known  to  the  at- 
tendants, who  showed  him  out,  sometimes 
with  insulting  speeches,  and  sometimes  with 
an  air  of  commiseration  more  cruel  even 
than  downright  abuse. 

At  last  the  wretched  man  lost  his  wits. 
He  got  it  into  his  head  that  his  only  re- 
course now  was  to  the  justice  of  the  Em- 
peror. He  therefore  took  up  his  station  on 
the  Imperial  highway,  armed  with  an  im- 
mense placard  on  which  he  had  written 
(103) 


104  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

in  enormous  letters :  "  Your  Highness,  Jus- 
tice and  Pity."  And  just  as  the  Emperor 
was  passing,  the  poor  fellow  held  it  out  be- 
fore him,  all  the  time  shouting  with  all  his 
lungs.  But  at  this  demonstration  one  of  the 
attendants  signed  to  two  or  three  policemen, 
who  immediately  laid  hold  of  the  old  man 
and  carried  him  off  to  an  officer  of  the 
peace.  Here  he  related  his  story  with  much 
excitement.  The  officer  apparently  listened 
to  him  and  pitied  him.  He  told  him  that 
he  would  be  taken  before  the  Emperor,  and 
put  him  in  charge  of  some  men  whom  he 
followed  very  quietly.  One  hour  later  he 
was  confined  in  a  building  very  closely 
barred  and  full  of  people  with  wild  and  hag- 
gard faces.  Here  he  was  taken  with  a  vio- 
lent paroxysm  of  rage,  shaking  and  gnaw- 
ing at  the  bars,  and  howling  in  his  mad- 
ness. At  this  two  strong  men  put  on  him 
a  jacket  which  confined  his  arms  closely, 


HO  W  FO  HI  KEPT  HIS  POSITION.          i o  5 

and  carried  him  under  a  sort  of  faucet  from 
which  they  turned  a  stream  of  cold  water  on 
his  head.  This  shower-bath  quieted  the 
poor  wretch,  so  that  he  watched  in  a 
stunned  sort  of  way  what  was  going  on 
around  him,  and  allowed  himself  to  be 
thrown  without  resistance  upon  a  bed,  where 
he  sank  into  a  profound  slumber. 

Some  few  months  later,  a  beautiful  princess, 
who  was  related  in  the  thirty-fifth  degree  to 
an  uncle  of  the  Emperor,  was  taken  with  a 
fancy  to  visit  a  lunatic  asylum.  She  was 
escorted  by  a  Minister,  who  supported  her 
very  gallantly  upon  his  arm.  At  the  asylum 
she  was  received  by  the  Superintendent  with 
all  the  honors  due  to  her  rank  and  title. 
She  walked  through  the  corridors,  and  even 
spoke  with  some  of  the  unfortunates  whom 
she  met  in  the  rooms.  But  the  appearance 
of  the  shabby  old  man  especially  attracted 
her  attention.  At  length  she  drew  him  into 


io6  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

conversation,  and  he  told  her  his  story  so 
clearly  and  rationally  that  the  princess 
seemed  to  be  deeply  impressed  by  it. 

"And  do  you  consider  this  man  a  luna- 
tic ? "  she  asked,  turning  to  the  head  physi- 
cian of  the  institution. 

The  doctor  bowed,  and  answered  with  a 
very  gracious  smile: 

"  I  am  sure  of  it,  madame,  and  I  am 
doubtful  if  he  will  ever  be  cured.  Insane 
people  who  talk  rationally  are  nearly  always 
incurable." 

"But  I  should  very  much  like  to  make 
sure  whether  or  not  the  story  which  he  has 
told  us  is  true." 

"  Nothing  is  easier,  madame,"  replied  the 
Minister,  whose  turn  it  was  now  to  speak. 

So  it  was  immediately  ordered  that  the 
archives  should  be  consulted ;  and  there,  to 
the  dismay  of  everybody,  was  discovered  the 
mistake  of  which  the  unfortunate  old  man 


HO  W  FO  HI  KEPT  HIS  POSITION.          107 

had  been  the  victim.  When  it  was  told  to 
the  princess  she  was  graciously  pleased  to 
laugh  very  heartily  at  it,  and  that  very 
evening  she  spoke  of  it  to  her  friends  in  her 
drawing-room,  all  of  whom  found  it  exceed- 
ingly entertaining.  She,  however,  asked  the 
physician  if  the  poor  man  could  not  be  re- 
leased from  the  asylum,  but  he  protested  he 
could  not  discharge  a  patient  until  he  was 
perfectly  and  duly  cured.  She  then  urged 
him  to  show  the  poor  fellow  every  attention 
in  his  power,  and  spoke  of  sending  a  dona- 
tion of  one  hundred  taels  to  the  family  as 
indemnity.  But  the  next  morning  she 
thought  no  more  about  it. 

The  Minister,  however,  went  home  in  a  fu- 
rious rage  at  the  jokes  of  which  he  had 
been  made  the  butt.  He  sent  immediately 
for  the  Secretary  who  had  made  the  mistake, 
and  had  him  impaled  before  his  eyes,  to 
teach  him  to  do  his  work  more  carefully. 


io8  7 HE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

Then  without  delay  he  wrote  to  Song-Kong- 
Chou,  commanding  that  a  certain  rascal  by 
the  name  of  Fo  Hi,  who  had  treacherously 
usurped  another  man's  place,  should  be  dis- 
charged instantly.  And  now  it  would  all 
have  been  over  with  our  hero,  if  his  superi- 
ors, by  a  peculiar  series  of  circumstances, 
had  not  found  themselves  compelled  to  sup- 
port him,  even  against  the  wishes  of  His  Ex- 
cellency, the  Minister. 

The  road  upon  which  Fo  Hi  was  em- 
ployed formed  at  a  certain  point  an  angle 
which  was  a  great  eye-sore.  It  went  round 
a  garden  which  it  ought  to  have  crossed  to 
preserve  its  symmetry.  This  garden  be- 
longed to  a  well  to-do  citizen,  who  cultivated 
it  with  his  own  hands.  It  was  famous  for 
ten  leagues  around,  for  the  beauty  of  its 
flowers,  nearly  all  of  which  were  very  rare 
varieties.  The  owner  was  quite  proud  of  his 
garden,  and  would  not  have  parted  with  it 


HO  W  FO  HI  KEPT  HIS  POSITION.         109 

for  all  the  gold  in  the  world.  He  had  only 
enclosed  it  with  a  quickset  hedge,  so  that 
th€  passers  might  have  the  privilege  of  the 
beautiful  scene.  His  chief  pleasure  was  to 
stand  at  his  window  in  the  morning,  looking 
forth  at  his  flowers  sparkling  with  dew, 
and  breathing  their  rich  perfumes.  But  one 
day  when  he  returned  home  after  an  absence 
of  a  few  weeks,  he  met  with  a  great  sur- 
prise. He  found  a  large  part  of  his 
hedge  torn  up,  heaps  of  stones  standing  in 
the  midst  of  his  flower-beds,  and  laborers 
tearing  up  the  soil  with  their  picks,  all  for 
the  purpose  of  running  the  road  directly 
across  his  garden.  He  was  so  taken  aback 
by  this .  depredation  that  he  thought  he 
should  fall  down.  He  rushed  out  and  ex- 
postulated vehemently  with  the  laborers,  who 
only  sent  him  to  the  Controller. 

Now     Ave    must     admit    that    Mr.    Fo     Hi, 
junior,   had  given   his    orders    rather    hastily. 


no  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

But  the  indulgent  reader  must  excuse  him 
for  the  sake  of  his  intentions,  which  were 
certainly  good,  This  angle  was  an  eye-sore 
to  him.  He  said  to  himself  that  it  would 
be  a  great  advantage  to  the  public  and  a 
great  triumph  for  symmetry,  if  the  road 
were  straightened.  And  really  there  never 
was  anything  easier.  All  that  was  needed 
was  to  cut  in  two  this  unlucky  garden,  which 
interfered  so  unpleasantly  with  the  right 
line  of  the  highway.  It  was  not  his  fault 
that  the  owner  was  an  ill-tempered  man,  who 
preferred  his  flowery  rubbish  to  the  public 
good.  Thus  Fo  Hi  had  reasoned,  and  con- 
sequently had,  in  the  name  of  the  Depart- 
ment which  he  represented,  ordered  his  men 
to  break  through  the  hedge,  and  to  carry 
the  road  on  in  a  straight  line.  The  owner 
accordingly  went,  pale  with  rage,  to  the  Con- 
troller's office.  Here  he  was  told,  in  a 
careless  sort  of  way,  that  he  would  have  to 


HO  W  FO  HI  KEPT  HIS  POSITION.          1 1 1 

apply  to  His  Honor  the  Director-in-chief, 
who  alone  was  authorized  to  make  expla- 
nations. He  therefore  went  to  the  Director's 
mansion,  and  rehearsed  to  him,  without  in- 
troduction, and  in  an  excited  voice,  the  sub- 
stance of  his  complaint.  The  Director  lis- 
tened to  him  politely,  and  told  him  that  he 
would  address  a  report  to  the  Home  Office 
on  the  matter. 

"A  report !  "  shouted  the  civilian,  with  ex- 
asperation, "  what  do  you  want  of  a  report  ? 
Your  men  are  in  my  garden,  the  garden 
belongs  to  me — isn't  that  plain  enough  ?  I 
want  none  of  your  tricks !  Let  them  give 
me  back  what  they  are  stealing  from  me — 
yes,  I  repeat  it,  what  they  are  stealing  from 
me !  Your  Department  is  a  very  den  of 
thieves !  " 

"  Sir,"  said  the  Director,  in  a  dignified  voice, 
"  I  will  forget  the  remarks  which  have  just 
escaped  your  lips  in  a  moment  of  anger,  and 


112  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

which  you  already  regret,  I  have  no  doubt. 
You  have  insulted  me  in  the  exercise  of 
my  functions,  and  it  might  be  a  very  serious 
matter  if  it  were  not  that  I  can  bear  with 
and  forgive  human  infirmity.  Remember,  sir, 
that  the  Government  in  China  never  com- 
mits an  error.  If  it  has  taken  your  garden, 
it  is  undoubtedly  because  it  has  a  right  to 
it.  Nay,  I  may  say  further,  because  it  is  its 
duty  to  take  it." 

"We  will  see  about  that!"  roared  the 
civilian.  "  I  am  going  straight  to  a  sheriff 
about  it.  There  are  judges  in  Pekin." 

But  the  road  through  the  garden  had 
already  been  finished  two  months,  when  the 
Court  which  took  cognizance  of  the  com- 
plaint gave  its  decision.  It  decided  that  the 
affair  was  a  purely  governmental  affair,  with 
which,  consequently,  the  Court  had  nothing 
to  do,  and  that  the  plaintiff  must  appeal  to 
the  Department  of  Roads  itself  to  pass  judg* 


HO  W  FO  HI  KEPT  HIS  POSITION.  113 

ment  upon  the  right  and  the  wrong  of  its 
action.  It  further  suggested  that  no  judge 
could  be  found  who  would  understand  the 
business  so  well  as  the  departmental  author- 
ities, because  it  was  entirely  within  the  scope 
of  their  jurisdiction,  and  finally  that  for  esti- 
mating clearly  the  merits  of  a  suit  at  law 
there  was  nothing  like  being  one's  self  a  party 
to  it.  But  the  owner  of  the  garden  did  not 
concur  in  this  opinion.  He  appealed  from 
the  decision  to  the  Imperial  Council,  urgently 
requesting  to  be  heard  by  some  other  tri- 
bunal than  one  composed  of  the  thieves 
themselves. 

Now  it  was  at  this  very  point  in  the  case 
that  the  letter  reached  Song-Kong-Chou,  in 
which  the  Minister  commanded  Fo  Hi's  dis- 
charge. The  Director-in-chief  instantly  replied 
to  His  Excellency,  begging  him  to  reconsider 
his  decision.  He  explained,  with  much  good 

sense,  that  this    discharge   would   have  a  very 
8 


1 1±  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  ///. 

bad  effect  upon  the  public,  which  would 
attribute  it  to  an  entirely  different  cause. 
He  urged  that  the  Department  must  back 
Fo  Hi  to  the  very  end  in  this  matter,  be- 
cause he  had  acted  as  its  representative,  and 
to  throw  him  over  now  would  be  to  throw 
itself  over.  His  Excellency  the  Minister 
readily  fell  in  with  these  very  judicious  views, 
and  thus  Fo  Hi  was  retained  in  office  for 
having  done  a  foolish  thing  in  a  position 
from  which  he  was  saved  from  being  driven 
by  the  foolish  behavior  of  another  man. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

A    FAMOUS    LAWSUIT. 

THE  people  who  want  to  know  everything 
will  ask,  probably,  what  was  the  conclusion 
of  the  lawsuit  about  the  garden.  But  I  am 
sorry  that  I  can  not  g^tify  their  curiosity. 
The  suit  is  still  in  progress,  and  the  most 
eminent  jurists  say  that  it  is  nowhere  near 
being  ended.  The  owner  gained  his  cause 
seven  times  during  his  lifetime,  in  seven  dif- 
ferent courts,  but  was  never  able  to  recover 
possession  of  his  property.  The  Department 
was  always  ready  with  some  technical  objec- 
tion, and  would  not  let  go  its  hold.  Finally 
the  owner  lost  patience,  and  one  night  had 
his  workmen  dig  up  the  part  of  the  road 
which  had  cut  his  garden  in  two,  and  re-set 
the  hedge,  which,  ten  years  before,  had  been 


ii6  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  ///. 

illegally  torn  up.  But  this  only  made  mat- 
ters worse.  For  now  the  Department  brought 
an  action  against  its  adversary,  in  which  it 
was  victorious,  and  the  man  was  sentenced 
to  pay  a  fine  and  to  go  to  prison.  Me 
paid  the  fine,  and  died  in  prison,  leaving 
to  his  children  nothing  of  all  the  fortune 
which  he  once  had  but  a  lawsuit  to  carry 
on.  His  oldest  son  accepted  this  inheritance 
piously,  and  bequeathed  it  to  his  daughter, 
who  is  now  eighty-two  years  of  age,  and 
who  is  still  prosecuting  the  case  with  more 
bitterness  and  obstinacy  than  ever.  Sixty- 
eight  Directors-in-chief  have  succeeded  one 
another  during  these  three  generations,  and 
not  one  has  weakened  for  a  moment  in  that 
long  struggle.  One  of  them  uttered  this 
memorable  sentence,  which  ought  to  be  in- 
scribed in  letters  of  gold  on  all  the  public 
monuments :  "  The  Department  neither  dies 
nor  surrenders/1 


A  FA  MO  US  LA  WSUIT.  1 1 7 

This  suit  yields  an  income  to  a  certain 
number  of -lawyers,  of  whose  assets  it  forms 
an  established  part  If  all  the  papers  which 
make  up  the  record  of  the  case  were  to-day 
gathered  into  a  single  pile,  they  would  form 
a  mountain  higher  than  the  Altai  itself. 
If  those  who  are  now  righting  over  that 
piece  of  ground  were  to  sell  it  for  what  it 
has  already  cost  them,  they  would  have  to 
be  paid  fifty  times  its  weight  in  gold.  The 
whole  of  China  might  be  paved  from  one 
end  to  the  other  with  the  taels  which  it 
has  cost  in  the  Courts.  And  yet  nothing 
decisive  has  been  reached !  But  then  it 
is  a  matter  "of  principle.  By  this  noble  dis- 
play of  obstinacy  the  Department  has  in- 
spired the  country  with  a  salutary  awe.  No 
one  dares  any  longer  to  oppose  its  demands. 
For  instance,  some  time  ago  it  needed  a 
certain  mansion  to  convert  into  a  storehouse. 
As  soon  as  the  owner  of  the  premises 


ii8  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HT. 

learned  that  his  property  was  required,  he 
brought  the  keys  to  the  Director-in-chief,  on 
a  silver  tray,  and  thanked  him  humbly  for 
not  taking  also  the  park  back  of  the  house. 
To  which  that  dignitary  replied  calmly : 
"  That  will  come  bye-and-bye,  perhaps." 

Our  friend  Fo  Hi  was  acquainted  with  no 
more  than  the  beginnings  of  this  famous 
suit  at  law.  But  he  saw  enough  of  it  to 
add  to  his  code  of  conduct  this  rule,  which 
was  not,  however,  to  be  the  last: 

All  public  wishes   disobey, 

And  practice   even   the   courts  to   cheat. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE   OATH     OF    ALLEGIANCE. 

THE  year  7964  is  famous  in  the  annals 
of  China  as  a  year  of  calamity.  This  great 
Empire,  which  for  so  many  centuries  had 
enjoyed  undisturbed  prosperity,  was  now  for 
the  first  time  convulsed  by  revolution 
and  civil  war.  The  Emperor  Hu-o-li  XXIV 
died,  leaving  the  throne  to  his  son  Hu-o-li 
XXV,  a  young  man  seventeen  years  of 
age,  whom  he  placed  under  the  guardian- 
ship of  Fi  Ho,  one  of  his  most  confiden- 
tial councilors.  This  Fi  Ho  was  noted  for 
his  good  looks  and  his  great  abilities ;  but 
he  was  eaten  up  with  ambition.  He  had 
married  a  niece  of  the  late  Emperor,  and 
cherished  a  secret  desire  to  succeed  to  the 
throne. 


120  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

The  accession  of  the  young  sovereign  in- 
spired China  with  universal  joy.  The  be- 
ginning of  a  new  reign  has  all  the  charm 
of  a  fine  morning  with  its  promise  of  a 
cloudless  day.  Throughout  the  Empire,  the 
heads  of  departments  assembled  all  their  sub- 
ordinates, for  the  purpose  of  administering 
to  them  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  new 
Emperor,  which  they  had  formerly  taken  to 
his  father. 

"With  all  my  heart  and  with  both 
hands,"  said  young  Fo  Hi.  "The  Emperor 
is  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  my  country, 
chosen  by  God,  and  accepted  by  the 
nation.  I  respect  him  and  love  him, 
as  every  good  Chinaman  ought.  My  oath 
pledges  me  to  nothing  which  I  am  not  al- 
ready disposed  to  stand  by.  And  besides,  I 
can't  see  for  my  life  why  an  oath  should 
be  required  of  me  more  than  of  that  la- 
borer in  the  street." 


THE  OATH  OF  ALLEGIANCE.  121 

"  What  ! "  they  said  to  him.  "  But  you 
are  an  official !  You  owe  the  Emperor  a 
special  acknowledgment,  for  he  it  is  who 
pays  and  feeds  you." 

"  Not  at  all !  "  replied  Fo  Hi.  "  I  give  my 
time  and  labor  to  the  whole  nation,  which 
me  at  the  hands  of  the  sovereign ; 
is  certainly  a  very  different  thing. 
I  am  no  more  bound  to  the  Emperor  by 
the  money  which  he  pays  me  for  my  la- 
bor, than  is  yonder  laborer  to  the  cashier 
who  hands  him  his  wages  at  the  end  of 
the  week.  As  to  an  oath,  there  is  but  one, 
that  I  know  of,  in  this  world,  which  any 
one  has  the  right  to  ask  especially  of  me. 
It  is  the  solemn  obligation  to  do  conscien- 
tiously the  work  which  is  given  me  to  do. 
It  is  very  evident  that  a  silk  merchant  can 
not  be  required  to  swear  that  he  will  keep 
the  roads  in  good  order.  But  we  all  owe 
a  common  allegiance  to  the  Emperor,  just 


122  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

as  we  all  owe  a  common  obedience  to  the 
law.  For  my  part,  I  am  perfectly  willing 
to  be  faithful  to  him,  and  I  am  astonished 
that  any  one  should  think  it  necessary  to 
bind  me  with  an  oath  from  which  other 
citizens  are  exempt." 

Now  these  considerations  were  undoubt- 
edly very  reasonable.  But  Fo  Hi  mace 
the  mistake  of  expressing  them  freely  in 
the  hearing  of  some  of  his  comrades  vith 
whom  he  was  intimate.  Consequently  vrhen 
it  came  his  turn  to  take  the  oath,  His  Honor 
the  Director-in-chief  gave  him  a  black  look, 
and  said  to  him  severely: 

"Take  care,  sir!  You  reason  too  well 
ever  to-  be  a  good  official !  You  do  not 
have  for  His  Majesty  the  respect — " 

"  What !  "  exclaimed  -Fo  Hi  vehemently, 
"  I  not  respect  the  Emperor !  I,  who  am  de- 
voted to  him,  body  and  soul !  I  regard 
him  as  the  one  man  who  represents  my 


THE  OATH  OF  ALLEGIANCE.  123 

country  to  the  eyes  of  foreign  nations,  and  I 
am  as  ready  to  die  for  him  as  I  would  be 
to  yield  up  my  life  for  her." 

"No,  sir,  "  replied  the  dignitary,  in  a  gen- 
tler voice.  "  It  is  not  enough  that  you 
should  love  the  Emperor  as  you  love  your 
country,  because  he  is  its  chief  representative. 
You  should  have  for  his  person  the  same 
devotion  which  the  priest  has  for  his  God. 
These  are  the  sentiments  which  I  profess,  and 
I  am  sure  that  no  one  in  this  presence  will 
repudiate  them." 

At  these  words  the  four  or  five  hundred 
officials  who  were  listening  attentively  bowed 
like  one  man,  and  broke  into  a  simultaneous 
smile.  Those  who  were  standing  near  Fo 
Hi  moved  away  one  by  one  as  if  they 
were  afraid  of  catching  the  small-pox.  He 
was  just  about  to  launch  out  into  a  reply 
to  the  position  taken  by  the  Director,  when 


124  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  LL 

he  very  opportunely  recollected  one  of  old 
Li-jou-lin's  axioms:  "The  strongest  reason 
is  always  the  best."  He  therefore  con- 
trolled his  inclination  to  speak,  and  signed 
in  silence  the  form  of  oath  which  was  placed 
before  him. 

That  very  evening  he  was  in  his  room 
quietly  smoking  a  pipe  of  opium,  when  the 
Director's  orderly  came  in  and  handed  him 
the  following  circular,  to  which  many  of  his 
comrades  had  already  put  their  signatures : 

"  My  dear  Associates!  the  Providence 
which  guards  the  destinies  of  China  with 
such  peculiar  care  has  just  given  us  a  sig- 
nal example  of  its  kindness  to  our  glorious 
country.  It  has  overturned  the  throne  of 
the  late  Emperor  Hu-o-li,  twenty-fifth  of 
that  name,  whose  youth  and  inexperience 
were  rapidly  leading  China  to  destruction. 

"  For  this  great  and  memorable  work  it 
has  chosen  as  its  instrument  the  illustrious 


THE  OATH  OF  ALLEGIANCE.  125 

Fi  Ho.  Our  affection  and  our  prayers  had 
long  since  designated  him  for  the  supreme 
power,  with  which  at  last  he  has  now 
been  invested  by  the  righteous  decree  of 
the  Most  High.  The  population  of  Pekin  has 
already  manifested  its  joy  by  those  shouts 
and  illuminations  which  mark  the  depths  of 
national  emotion.  Shall  we,  my  dear  as- 
sociates, be  the  last  to  welcome  a  change 
for  which  our  secret  wishes  have  been 
clamoring  for  many  years  ?  Shall  we  be  the 
last  to  attach  ourselves  proudly  to  the  mag- 
nificent destiny  which  God  is  preparing  for 
China  ?  No,  gentlemen,  the  time  has  come 
for  us  to  show  our  devotion  to  the  public 
good  and  to  the  Emperor.  I  expect  you 
to-morrow  to  take  a  solemn  oath  of  fidelity 
to  the  elect  of  the  people  and  of  God,  and 
I  do  not  apprehend  that  a  single  one  of 
you  will  be  wanting  in  this  urgent  duty. 
If  among  your  number  there  could  be 


126  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  ///. 

one  man  capable  of  such  shameful  treason, 
it  is  very  plain  that  he  could  not  be  al- 
lowed to  wear  for  another  moment  the 
uniform  and  the  insignia  which  are  the 
marks  of  honor  and  fidelity.  " 

"Anything!"  exclaimed  Fo  Hi,  with  vio- 
lent indignation,  when  he  had  read  this  doc- 
ument "  Anything  !  Discharge  !  Death  itself, 
rather  than  such  baseness  !  The  wretches ! " 

The  blood  boiled  in  his  veins,  and  he 
walked  excitedly  about  his  room,  his  eyes 
flaming  with  resentment,  his  fists  tightly 
clenched,  all  the  while  talking  wildly  to  the 
furniture  as  if  it  could  hear  and  answer  him. 
At  length  the  heat  of  the  room  seemed  to 
stifle  him.  He  wanted  plenty  of  air  and 
space  in  which  to  vent  his  feelings.  So  he 
went  out  and  wandered  about  for  a  long 
time  in  the  fields,  breathing  into  the  air  his 
angry  ejaculations  and  incoherent  phrases. 

"  No,"  he   shouted,  "  it  is  impossible.     Is  it 


THE  OATH  OF  ALLEGIANCE.  127 

indeed  nothing  but  an  oath  which  they  ask 
of  me  ?  They  are  as  ready  to  perjure  them- 
selves as  to  eat  their  meals  !  Yesterday  they 
took  one,  and  to-day  they  take  another  with 
equal  alacrity !  This  Fi  Ho  requires  us  to 
take  an  oath  to  him;  but  has  he  shown  any 
regard  for  his  own  ?  Didn't  he  himself 
swear  fealty  to  his  sovereign,  the  son  of  his 
benefactor  ?  What  faith  can  he  have  in  these 
empty  forms,  he  who  has  so  basely  violated 
the  most  sacred  thing  in  all  the  world  ?  He 
only  wants  to  degrade  us.  He  reHes  upon 
our  cowardice.  Oh  yes,  we  are  cowardly 
enough !  But  for  my  part,  I  will  show  him 
that  there  are  still  some  spirits  whom  nothing 
can  humble.  I  will  refuse  to  take  this  oath  ; 
others  will  follow  my  example ;  and  thus  the 
opposition  will  gradually  gain  ground  until 
the  usurper  will  tremble  on  his  throne/1 

The  young  fellow's  imagination,  having  thus 
been  spurred  into  full  gallop  at  the  very  start, 


128  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  ///. 

could  no  longer  be  controlled.  He  pictured 
himself  thrown  into  prison  and  subjected  to 
torture,  but  always  firm.  Then  he  saw  him- 
self led  away  to  execution,  and  on  the  steps 
of  the  scaffold  delivering  an  impromptu 
harangue  to  the  populace.  This  last  speech 
was  so  touching  that  presently  the  mob, 
wrought  up  to  fury,  flung  themselves  upon 
the  soldiers,  rescued  him  from  their  custody, 
and  bore  him  away  in  triumph. 

Fo  Hi  returned  from  his  evening  walk  in 
a  very  exalted  state  of  mind,  and  strung  up 
to  a  high  point  of  heroic  sacrifice.  He  im- 
mediately went  to  all  his  associates,  one 
after  the  other,  to  incite  them  to  resistance, 
to  win  them  over  to  his  view  of  the  case, 
and  to  organize  a  common  opposition  to  the 
new  dynasty.  But  everywhere  he  was  con- 
fronted with  hypocrisy  or  cowardice.  The 
first  man  to  whom  he  appealed  listened  to 
him  distrustfully.  He  took  him  for  a  spy, 


THE  OATH  QF  ALLEGIANCE.  129 

and  answered  him  in  a  cold  and  yet  em- 
phatic tone : 

"  My  dear  comrade,  I  honor  and  love  the 
great  Prince  who  has  just  saved  China  from 
destruction.  I  have,  therefore,  no  repugnance 
to  taking  the  oath  which  he  requires.  I  am 
even  waiting  impatiently  for  the  moment  to 
give  a  public  testimony  to  my  devotion  to 
the  new  dynasty." 

When  Fo  Hi  revealed  his  plans  to  another 
employee,  the  lady  of  the  house  stopped  him 
at  the  first  word.  "  I  beseech  you,"  she  said, 
"not  to  give  my  husband  any  bad  advice. 
The  poor  man  would  be  only  too  willing  to 
follow  it." 

"What!"  cried  the  young  man,  sadly,  "do 
you,  too,  talk  so — you,  who  ought  to  inspire 
him  with  courage  ?  Where  is  the  magnanim- 
ity of  sentiment  which  is  so  natural  to  the 
feminine  heart  ?  It  is  from  you  women  that 
man  draws  his  strength  and  pride !  Shall  he 


130  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

then  hear  from  you  no  more  than  the  advice 
of  a  pitiful  prudence  ? " 

"Alas,  sir !  "  answered  the  woman,  "  that  is 
all  very  fine  talk  for  you ! " 

On  her  lap  was  a  little  boy  whom  sue  was 
undressing,  and  two  little  girls  were  cling- 
ing to  her  skirt,  looking  on  with  big  won- 
dering eyes,  without  understanding  the  con- 
versation. The  poor  mother  looked  down  at 
the  little  creatures,  and  stroking  their  hair 
gently,  said  softly : 

"  Poor  little  cherubs  !  When  you  become 
a  father,  sir,  you  will  listen  much  more 
readily  to  the  advice  which  these  dear  little 
curly-heads  will  give  you.  If  there  is  any 
wrong  in  taking  this  oath,  let  it  be  visited 
upon  those  who  demand  it!" 

Fo  Hi  went  away  broken-hearted.  He  suc- 
ceeded not  much  better  with  the  rest  of  his  as- 
sociates. Some  of  them  shared  his  indignation, 
but  they  were  all  afraid  to  go  any  farther. 


THE  OATH  OF  ALLEGIANCE.  131 

"A  pretty  move,  indeed !  "  they  said,  in  re- 
ply to  his  entreaties.  "  How  much  weaker 
will  the  Government  be  when  we  have  been 
thrown  out  of  work  ?  Our  resistance  will 
help  nobody,  and  it  is  certainly  very  danger- 
ous to  ourselves." 

"  But  suppose  we  should  all  unite  in  the 
opposition  ? "  exclaimed  Fo  Hi,  mournfully. 

"  Oh,  that  is  a  different  thing !  If  every- 
body resists,  then  I  resist  too  !  "  There  was 
no  one,  however,  who  wanted  to  bell  the  cat. 
But  among  Fo  Hi's  associates  there  was  an 
old  fellow  who  was  very  well  preserved,  and 
who  had  always  shown  great  freedom  of 
opinion.  To  him  our  hero  now  went,  and 
said :  "  You,  at  least,  will  not  forsake  me !  " 
But  the,  old  man  replied :  "  My  dear  boy,  I 
like  to  see  your  spirit.  It  proves  to  me  that 
we  are  not  yet  so  utterly  rotten  as  my  ex- 
perience in  the  service  would  lead  me  to 
think.  That  is  far  from  disagreeable  to  me. 


132  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

I  don't  know  what  I  might  have  done  at 
thirty.  I  was  very  hot-headed,  and  it  is  very 
likely  that  I  should  have  acted  just  as  you 
propose  to  act.  But  I  should  have  made  a 
mistake.'' 

"  You  would  have  made  a  mistake  ? "  asked 
Fo  Hi,  incredulously. 

"  Why,  to  be  sure !  my  dear  boy.  It 
would  have  been  better,  perhaps,  to  have 
chosen  a  private  profession,  instead  of  accept- 
ing employment  from  the  Government.  But 
when  the  choice  is  once  made,  you  must 
submit  to  the  consequences  of  a  position 

from    which   there    is   rio    escape.      After   all, 

• 
the   ruling  power   asks  of   you   only  what    it 

is  very  natural  it  should  ask.  It  does  not 
want  its  employees  to  exert  themselves  to 
undermine  and  destroy  its  existence.  It  re- 
quires you  to  promise  under  oath  that  you 
will  not  be  hostile  to  it.  And  it  is  right, 
and  there  is  no  dishonor  in  your  taking  the 


THE  OATH  OF  ALLEGIANCE.  133 

oath  which  it  asks.  Have  you  any  hostile 
designs  upon  the  Government  ?  Of  course 
you  haven't.  You  don't  like  it,  you  have  a 
very  low  opinion  of  it,  but  you  don't  intend 
to  overthrow  it.  You  can  do  nothing  either 
for  it  or  against  it.  Why  refuse,  then,  an 
oath  which  you  must  necessarily  keep,  even 
if  you  don't  take  it  ? " 

"And  why,  then,"  exclaimed  Fo  Hi,  "if 
this  oath  is  as  indifferent  a  thing  as  you 
say,  why  has  the  mere  thought  of  it  stirred 
up  my  feelings  so  strongly  ? " 

"  Because  you  are  only  thirty.  I  am 
very  nearly  sixty,  and  I  estimate  things  by 
reason  more  than  by  sentiment.  I  shall  take 
the  oath  which  they  demand,  without  enthusi- 
asm and  without  indignation.  It  is  simply 
an  empty  formality  to  which  I  am  submit- 
ting, I  have  no  idea  of  losing  all  my  rights 
to  a  pension  which  I  have  earned  by  forty 
years  of  hard  work.  The  Government,  which 


134  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HL 

has  my  money  in  its  pocket,  will  not 
pay  it  to  me  unless  I  pronounce  a  certain 
word,  which  is  nothing  but  a  mere  ceremony 
to  me.  Therefore  I  say  it  without  parley- 
ing, with  the  pistol  at  my  head.  I  prefer 
to  do  that  rather  than  be  compelled  some 
day  to  die  of  starvation,  while  shouting 
1  Stop,  thief! '  I  certainly  couldn't  shout  very 
loud  in  that  condition.  Go,  my  dear  boy, 
and  follow  my  example,  and  pocket  your 
scruples,  as  Panurge  says." 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE    SAME    SUBJECT    CONTINUED. 

Fo  Hi  returned  to  his  lodgings  with 
his  determination  greatly  shaken.  Night, 
that  mother  of  sage  counsels,  suggested  some 
thoughts  to  him  which  were  the  reverse  of 
heroic.  He  said  to  himself  that  an  in- 
dividual display  of  resistance  would  amount 
to  nothing,  and  that  it  would  be  very  fool- 
ish to  sacrifice  everything  to  a  mere  point 
of  overstrained  honor.  He  asked  himself 
what  would  become  of  him  after  this  new 
freak.  Penniless,  friendless,  with  no  protect- 
or, two  hundred  leagues  from  his  family, 
unfitted  for  manual  labor,  and  not  knowing 
what  to  do,  he  would  be  an  object  of  de- 
rision, or  of  pity.  And  then  what  would 
his  brothers-in-law,  to  whom  he  had  so 


136  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

magnificently    promised    his    protection,    think 
of  him  ? 

And  so  when  morning  came  he  was  very* 
much  cooled  down  Nothing  remained  of 
the.  extraordinary  excitement  of  the  evening 
before  but  that  tired  feeling  which  follows 
the  great  tempests  of  the  soul.  With  a  de- 
jected air  he  went  to  the  official  mansion 
where  the  ruin  of  his  honor  was  to  be  con- 
summated. His  Honor  the  Director-in-chief 
waited  until  all  the  officials  had  assembled, 
when  he  entered,  radiant  and  dignified,  and 
read  in  a  loud  voice  the  form  of  oath  to 
which  each  one  had  to  respond  in  turn  with 
the  sacred  words  "  I  swear  it"  It  was  very 
curious  to  see  the  different  ways  in  which 
the  various  officials  pronounced  this  short 
sentence.  Some  rolled  it  out  in  a  strong, 
bold  voice,  which  seemed  charged  with  con- 
viction; others  uttered  it  in  a  nonchalant 
sort  of  way,  as  if  it  were  a  matter  of  as 


THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CONTINUED.         137 

little  importance  as  asking  the  time  of  day 
of  one  of  their  associates ;  while  still 
"others  pronounced  it  in  the  surly  tone  of  a 
man  who  is  performing  a  disagreeable  task. 
When  Fo  Hi's  turn  came,  he  felt  the  in- 
ward mutterings  of  a  final  protest,  and  it 
was  only  by  a  strong  effort  of  will  that  he 
was  able  to  lift  his  hand  and  hold  it  out. 
The  perspiration  poured  down  his  forehead  in 
great  drops,  and  it  seemed  as  if  those  three 
unlucky  words  would  tear  his  throat  out,  as 
he  uttered  them  in  a  choking  voice.  And 
when  at  last  they  were  spoken,  he  fell  back 
in  his  seat,  and  hid  his  face  in  his  hands 
as  if  to  hide  from  his  sight  the  shame  of 
what  he  had  done.  His  vexation  was  so 
marked  that  everybody  noticed  it,  and  es- 
pecially the  Director-in-chief. 

They  had  all  signed  their  names  to  the  doc- 
ument, and  the  assembly  was  about  to  be  dis- 
missed, when  a  messenger  came  in  with  a  letter 


138  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

for  His  Honor  the  Director.  The  dignitary 
took  it  and  opened  it  immediately,  and  as  he 
read  it  a  remarkable  change  cam,?  over  his  face. 
But  he  gradually  recovered  his  self-possession, 
and  at  length  said: 

"  Gentlemen,  I  bless  the  good  fortune 
which  assembles  you  about  me  at  this 
time.  I  am  proud  to  be  the  first  to 
announce  to  you  an  item  of  intelligence 
which  ought  to  overwhelm  us  all  with  delight. 
The  Providence  which  watches  with  such 
special  care  over  the  destinies  of  China,  has 
just  given  us  a  signal  example  of  its 
kindness  to  our  glorious  country.  It  has 
overturned  the  throne  of  the  usurper  Fi  Ho, 
whose  violence  and  audacity  were  rapidly 
leading  China  to  destruction.  It  has  re- 
stored the  sceptre  to  the  legitimate  hands  of 
our  young  Emperor,  the  incomparable  Hu- 
o-li  XXV.  The  population  of  Pekin  has  al- 
ready manifested  its  joy  by  those  universal 


THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CON11NUED.         139 

shouts  and  illuminations  which  mark  the 
depths  of  national  emotion.  Shall  we,  my 
dear  associates,  be  the  last  to  welcome  a 
change  toward  which  all  our  hopes  went 
out  ?  Shall  we  be  the  last  to  attach  our- 
selves proudly  to  the  magnificent  destiny 
which  God  is  preparing  for  China  ?  No, 
gentlemen,  the  time  has  come  for  us  to 
show  our  devotion  to  the  public  good  and 
to  the  Emperor.  Let  us  all,  on  the  spot, 
enthusiastically  swear  allegiance  to  our  sole 
legitimate  sovereign." 

And  thereupon  the  whole  company  took 
the  oath  again.  But  as  the  irrepressible 
Fo  Hi  was  about  to  affix  his  signature  to 
this  new  document,  he  observed  to  the 
Di  rector-in-chief: 

"  Your  Honor,  would  it  not  simplify  mat- 
ters to  have  a  form  of  oath  with  a  movable 
heading?  This  could  be  changed  with  each 
revolution,  and  we  should  thus  be  saved 


140  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

the  inconvenience  of  re-signing  our  names 
so  frequently,  " 

"  Really,  sir,"  roared  the  dignitary,  who  was 
now  fairly  furious ;  "  really,  sir,  you  are 
animated  by  a  most  detestable  spirit !  You 
trifle  with  the  most  sacred  things.  I  do  de- 
clare, sir,  you  are  making  sport  of  an 
oath  ! " 

And  so  Fo  Hi,  when  it  was  all  over  and 
he  was  safe  in  his  room,  added  to  his 
code  of  conduct  the  following  aphorism, 
which  the  circumstances  of  the  day  had  am- 
ply illustrated: 

With   every   change  of  rulers,   say 
New   oaths,   their  favors  to   entreat. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

FO     HI     VENTS     HIS     SPLEEN     ON     THE     GROCER'S 
BOY. 

AT  the  end  of  eight  days  Fo  Hi  received 
a  letter  which  he  recognized  by  its  shape 
and  seal  as  an  official  communication.  He 
therefore  opened  it  with  trembling  hands  and 
read  as  follows : 

"Sir: — His  Excellency  the  Minister  directs 
me  to  inform  you  that  you  are  dismissed 
from  the  position  which  you  now  hold. 
You  will  go  to  Fei-out-chi,  as  a  Surveyor 
of  the  third  class,  as  you  can  see  by  the 
enclosed  appointment.  I  hope,  sir,  that  this 
punishment  may  be  a  lesson  for  you,  by 
which  you  will  profit.  You  have  not  that 
submissive  spirit  which  is  the  chief  merit  of 
a  public  official.  In  all  your  acts,  and  even 
in  your  most  ordinary  utterances,  you  affect  a 
('40 


142  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  III. 

systematic  contempt  which  amounts  almost 
to  rebellion.  I  give  you  notice,  in  the  name 
of  His  Excellency  the  Minister,  that  if  you 
do  not  make  a  change  in  your  behavior  the 
Department  will  be  forced  to  use  extreme 
measures  with  you  and  dismiss  you  forever 
from  its  employ. " 

The  letter  was  signed  by  His  Honor  the 
Director-in  chief.  Fo  Hi  squeezed  it  dis- 
respectfully into  an  unrecognizable  mass,  sat 
down  at  his  writing-desk,  and  without  a 
moment's  delay  prepared  the  following  reply : 

"  To  His  Honor  the  Director-in-chief : — I 
will  save  the  Department  the  trouble  which 
it  would  most  certainly  have  to  take  in  a 
few  months.  I  send  you  herewith  my  resig- 
nation. You  have  expressed  it  very  well : 
I  have  still  a  little  spirit  left,  and  I 
am  not  cut  out  to  be  a  public  official. 
I  have  acted  in  that  capacity  already  too 
long.  It  is  much  better  to  die  of  hunger 


FO  HI  VENTS  HIS  SPLEE.\7.  143 

than    to    eat   bread   so    hard     and    purchased 
so    dearly." 

This  he  signed,  and  without  giving  him- 
self time  for  reflection,  sent  it  off.  That 
very  evening  he  was  sent  for  by  the  Director- 
in  chief,  who  received  him  with  great  affa- 
bility, and  said  to  him  : 

"  My  young  friend,  in  the  first  heat  of 
passion  you  have  written  me  a  letter  which 
is  not  very  becoming.  I  might  have  sent  it 
directly  to  His  Excellency  the  Minister.  But 
I  preferred  to  show  some  leniency  in  the 
case,  for  you  are  not  bad  at  heart.  Here 
is  your  letter.  I  give  it  back  to  you.  I 
consider  your  resignation  as  not  having  been 
presented." 

Mr.  Fo  Hi,  junior,  made  a  motion  as  if  to 
refuse  it,  but  the  Director  went  onx  in  the 
tone  of  a  kind-hearted  patron : 

"  Listen  to  me,  my  young  friend.  There 
is  still  time  enough  to  send  in  your  resig- 


144  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

nation.  If  you  persist  in  your  resolution, 
bring  it  back  to  me  in  two  days  from  now. 
I  hope  that  you  will  have  thought  better  of 
it  by  that  time.  I  know  very  well  that  the 
life  of  a  Government  officer  has  its  annoy- 
ances, and  just  now  you  are  experiencing 
them  a  little  too  keenly.  But  you  forget  the 
bright  side  of  official  life,  which  you  will 
see  better  when  your  mind  is  more  com- 
posed. The  advantage  of  belonging  to  a 
powerful  body,  which  never  leaves  you  in 
the  lurch,  the  respect  which  is  called  forth 
by  your  uniform  wherever  you  go,  the  com- 
fort of  an  existence  insured  against  all  acci- 
dents by  a  modest  but  regular  salary,  the 
certainty  of  a  pension  which  will  put  your 
last  days  beyond  the  reach  of  want,  the  very 
hope  of  advancement  which  one  always  gets 
when  he  deserves  it — here  certainly  are  more 
than  enough  advantages  to  outweigh  all  the 
annoyances.  Think  of  all  this,  my  young 


FO  HI  VENTS  HIS  SPLEEN.  145 

friend,  before  taking  a  resolution  which  your 
own  family  would  probably  not  sanction,  and 
which  you  will  be  sorry  for  at  some  future 
time.  You  know  very  well  what  you  lose 
by  quitting  us ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  do 
you  know  what  you  will  meet  with  outside 
of  the  service  ?  Weigh  carefully  all  these 
considerations,  and  come  and  see  me  again 
in  twenty-four  hours.  And  meanwhile  I  will 
tear  up  your  letter,  since  you  will  not  take 
it  back." 

"  My  resolution  is  irrevocable,"  said  Fo 
Hi. 

"Very  well!  very  well!"  replied  the  Di- 
rector, with  a  smile.  "  We  shall  see  !  "  And 
he  dismissed  the  young  man  in  the  most 
amicable  manner. 

Now  Fo  Hi  was  in  the  habit  of  passing 
every  day,  on  the  way  to  his  office,  a 
grocery  store  which  reminded  him  of  his 

father's.     In   the   store   there  was   a   boy  with 
10 


146  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

a  good-natured  face,  who  had  gotten  into  the 
habit  of  saluting  our  hero  every  morning. 
Fo  Hi  returned  his  politeness  with  a  slight 
nod,  and  sometimes  even  condescended  to 
speak  to  him,  when  he  found  him  on  the 
doorstep,  and  when  he  was  himself  in  a 
good  hurnor. 

"  Fine   weather,"  he  would    say   to   him. 

"Yes,  fine  weather,  Mr.  Fo  Hi,"  the  boy 
would  answer.  "  But  the  air  is  quite  sharp." 

The  boy  was  very  proud  of  this  distinction. 
He  respected  Fo  Hi  and  envied  him  at  the 
same  time.  The  wonderful  coral  button  hurt 
his  eyes  at  the  same  moment  that  it  fasci- 
nated them.  In  the  way  in  which  he  lifted 
his  fur  cap,  one  could  see  very  clearly  great 
deference  mixed  with  something  of  vexation. 

There  was  no  mistaking  the  meaning  of  that 

• 
salute.     The  boy  meant  to  say :    "  The  happy 

man,  who  draws  his  pay  every  month  with- 
out fail,  and  who  never  puts  up  packages 


FO  HI  VENTS  HIS  SPLEEN.  147 

of  pepper !  This  evening  he  will  go  to  the 
ball  at  the  Governor's,  and  probably  will  be 
allowed  the  honor  of  tapping  him  on  the 
stomach,  as  is  done  in  the  higher  classes. 
He  has  his  particular  place  in  the  public 
ceremonies  and  in  the  procession  of  Jugger- 
naut. He  is  something  in  the  world,  and  I 
lift  my  fur  cap  to  him  instead  of  his  lifting 
his  silk  cap  to  me.  Happy  man ! " 

Now  ordinarily  the  boy's  salutation  pleased 
Fo  Hi.  But  he  was  in  such  a  state  of  mind 
on  his  return  from  the  interview  with  the 
Director,  that  the  sight  of  this  silly  fellow 
raising  his  cap  to  him  gave  him  a  sharp 
pang;  so  he  went  up  to  him,  and  in  a  very 
exasperated  tone,  as  if  he  were  talking  to 
himself,  said  to  him : 

"  You  bow  to  me,  do  you  ?  You  bow  to 
me!  What  a  mockery!  Keep  your  hat  on, 
my  friend.  It  is  I  who  ought  to  take  off  my 
cap,  and  bow  to  the  very  ground  to  you." 


148  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

At  this  singular  speech  the  boy  opened 
his  big  eyes  very  wide,  and  continued  standing 
with  his  hat  in  his  hand,  his  mouth  open, 
and  a  look  of  amazement  on  his  face.  And 
Fo  Hi  went  on,  with  much  energy  :  "  Yes, 
it  is  for  me  to  bow  to  you,  for  you  are  free 
and  I  am  not.  When  your  work  is  done, 
you  owe  nothing  more  to  your  employer, 
and  can  go  to  bed  and  sleep  peacefully.  But 
I !  I  have  twenty  employers,  twenty  superi- 
ors who  are  paid  by  the  Emperor  to  tor- 
ment me.  They  all  want  to  earn  their  wages, 
and  they  do  their  work  zealously.  Dynasties 
change  without  requiring  anything  of  you. 
You  go  on  selling  your  rice  and  your  pep- 
per, without  troubling  yourself  about  them. 
But  they  have  a  claim  upon  my  allegiance 
because  they  support  me.  They  compel  me 
to  swear  my  fealty,  and  I  have  taken  three 
oaths  in  the  same  day.  No,  don't  bow  to 
me,  my  friend.  Keep  on  your  cap.  For  the 


FO  HI  VENTS  HIS  SPLEEN.  149 

work  which  you  are  doing  is  of  some  use. 
You  know  it  is  useful,  and  the  knowledge 
encourages  and  sustains  you.  You  believe 
in  the  sugar  which  you  crush,  and  so  you 
go  on  crushing  it  the  more  heartily.  But 
as  for  me,  my  friend,  I  am  weighed  down 
every  day  with  a  task  which  is  consuming 
my  strength,  and  yet  which  is  of  no  use  to 
anybody.  I  am  passing  the  best  days  of  my 
life,  these  days  which  are  gliding  by  to  re- 
turn no  more, — I  am  passing  the  flower  of 
my  life  in  counting  stones  by  the  roadside, 
and  in  blackening  reams  of  paper  for  the 
rats  to  gnaw.  I  am  only  a  machine  which 
goes  round  and  round  to  no  purpose. 

"  You  don't  know  anything,  do  you  ?  You 
have  scarcely  been  taught  to  read  and  write. 
Well,  console  yourself.  Ignorance  is  not 
stupidity.  Every  day  I  am  sinking  lower 
than  the  most  ignorant.  I  am  turning  into 
an  idiot.  I  am  conscious  of  it,  and  I 


150  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  LI. 

with  rage  over  it.  All  the  petty  passions 
are  getting  possession  of  me.  I  am  acquir- 
ing a  taste  for  paltry  artifices.  Yes,  I  am 
lost.  I  dare  not  look  my  conscience  square- 
ly in  the  face,  because  I  should  recognize 
there  a  horrible  depth  of  hatred.  Hatred  of 
whom  ?  Oh !  Good  Heavens  !  Hatred  of 
anybody  and  everybody, — hatred  of  these 
Directors,  who  torment  me  with  their  miser- 
able arrogance,  and  pass  on  to  me,  with  such 
manifest  satisfaction,  the  kicks  which  they 
themselves  have  already  received, — hatred  of 
my  work,  which  I  do  without  pleasure, 
because  I  do  it  without  definite  purpose — 
hatred  of  you,  sir!  yes,  even  of  you,  you 
great  simpleton,  who  are  silly  enough  to  bow 
to  me  every  morning.  No,  indeed,  don't 
salute  me.  Keep  your  cap  on.  You  envy 
me  for  going  to  the  Governor's  ball.  But 
do  you  know  that  I  am  not  at  liberty  to 
stay  away  if  I  feel  like  it  ?  Do  you  know 


FO  HI  VENTS  HIS  SPLEEN,  151 

if  I  were  not  there  to  put  up  smilingly  with 
the  little  patronizing  attentions  of  Madame, 
the  Governor's  wife,  there  are  kind  souls 
who  would  take  quick  note  of  it,  and  that 
their  note  of  it  would  be  bad?  I  have  my 
own  place  in  the  procession  of  Juggernaut. 
But  don't  you  see  that  I  am  between  two 
rows  of  soldiers,  just  like  a  criminal  who 
is  being  taken  to  prison  ?  It  is  for  me  to 
salute  you,  my  friend.  You  were  born  in 
this  district,  and  you  will  make  here  a 
respectable  fortune.  Here  also  you  will  die, 
surrounded  by  your  own  people,  and  mourned 
by  some  of  them.  But  I  wander  about  from 
town  to  town  unable  to  stay  anywhere. 
Without  notice  I  am  sent  from  one  end  of 
China  to  the  other,  without  the  first  cent 
with  which  to  pay  my  travelling  expenses. 
And  I  shall  die  as  I  live,  wretched  .and 
friendless,  at  a  hundred  leagues  from  the 
town  in  which  I  was  born.  Pity  me,  my 


152  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

good  fellow.  I  am  more  to  be  pitied  than 
envied.  Or  rather,  pity  us.  For  all  of  us, 
poor  officials,  are  in  the  same  predicament. 
Look  at  that  magistrate  who  is  now  passing. 
He  is  a  Councillor.  Your  employer  bows  to 
the  ground  for  him,  but  he  would  not  trust  him 
for  a  dollar.  Do  you  see  that  splendid  look- 
ing officer  yonder  ?  His  epaulettes  alone  cost 
him  a  whole  year's  salary.  He  will  never  buy 
a  villa  with  his  savings.  He  makes  a  very  fine 
show,  but  the  people  with  whom  he  trades 
can  tell  you  something  about  that.  The  Gov- 
ernment crumbles  its  budget  for  the  Public 
Service  very  fine,  that  it  may  go  further.  But 
in  the  end  nobody  is  satisfied^  neither  the 
employees  nor  the  Government.  The  scanty 
salaries  on  the  one  hand  are  responded  to 
by  scanty  work  and  scanty  gratitude  on  the 
other  hand.  Don't  ever  ask  for  your  piece 
of  the  cake,  and  just  put  your  cap  on  your 
head  and  keep  it  there." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

A  FAMILY  REUNION. 

THERE  is  nothing  for  relieving  vexation 
like  giving  vent  to  it  in  words.  One  of  the 
illustrious  talkers  of  the  Western  World, 
the  great  Cicero,  consoled  himself  for  the 
death  of  his  daughter,  whom  he  loved  de- 
votedly, by  writing  a  great  book  on  his 
sorrow.  So  our  hero  experienced  a  sense 
of  comfort  when  he  had  poured  his  troubles 
into  the  large  ears  of  the  grocer's  boy. 
He  began  to  look  less  bitterly  at  the  _des- 
tiny  which  had  fallen  to  him.  Little  by  little 
he  became  reconciled  to  the  idea  of  remain- 
ing an  official.  He  did  not  re-write  the  let- 
ter which  his  Director  had  destroyed,  but 
after  having  thanked  him  for  his  leniency 
he  started  for  his  new  post  of  duty. 
(>53) 


i.S4  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

To  reach  Fi-out  chi,  his  future  home,  he 
had  to  pass  through  the  district  in  which  he 
was  born.  He  had  at  first  made  up  his 
mind  not  to  stop,  for  he  felt  a  secret  humil- 
iation at  exposing  his  disgrace  to  the  eyes 
of  those  who  had  seen  him  depart  full  of 
hope  and  expectation.  But  when  he  saw 
in  the  distance  the  "gilded  roof  of  the  pagoda 
which  had  cast  its  shadow  upon  the  sports 
of  his  childhood,  he  could  not  withstand 
the  sight.  His  heart  melted,  and  turning 
into  the  town  he  leaped  from  the  coach, 
and  in  a  few  moments  fell  into  his  father's 
arms,  who  hugged  him  in  amazement.  Fo 
Hi  junior  did  not  dare  to  confess  the  sad 
truth  to  the  old  gentleman  who  looked  so 
proud  of  him.  He  talked  to  him  vaguely 
of  a  change  of  place,  and  of  promotion,  but 
the  old  fellow  was  too  elated  not  to  take 
his  word  for  it.  He  took  his  son  around 
to  all  his  neighbors,  friends,  and  acquaint- 


A  FA  MIL  Y  RE  UNION.  1 5  5 

ances  without  exception.  And  the  admira- 
tion and  envy  which  the  poor  boy  saw  re- 
flected on  everybody's  face,  were  balm  to 
his  wounded  pride.  His  sisters  and  brothers- 
in-law  naively  regarded  him  as  a  superior 
sort  of  man,  and  showed  him  a  great  deal 
of  deference.  Pe-ka-o,  especially,  was  over- 
joyed when  he  heard  that  so  important  a 
personage  as  Fo  Hi  junior  was  actually 
coming  to  spend  eight  days  at  his  farm, 
and  it  afforded  him  much  satisfaction  to 
take  him  over  his  estate  which  was  of 
considerable  extent. 

"  You  learned  fellows  have  other  pleas- 
ures, "  he  said  to  the  young  man,  "  but  I 
doubt  if  they  are  any  keener  than  ours.  It 
is  a  great  and  .deep  pleasure  to  know  that 
the  ground  on  which  you  are  walking  be- 
longs to  you.  I  am  absolute  master  here. 
These  fields  belong  to  me  just  as  China  be- 
longs to  the  Emperor.  I  can  do  whatever 


156  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

I  please,  and  am  accountable  to  God  alone 
who  is  the  Lord  of  all  men.  And  then  I 
have  another  pleasure,  at  which  undoubtedly 
you  will  laugh.  But  it  is  really  a  pleasure 
to  see  my  land  steaming  under  the  plough- 
share which  turns  over  the  sod  in  wide 
furrows.  The  first  little  spears  of  green 
grass  which  break  slowly  through  the  black 
clods,  throw  me  into  ecstasies  of  which  you 
can  have  no  idea.  I  go  out  very  early  in 
the  morning  when  the  blue  mists  are  still 
hanging  over  the  land,  and  take  a  look  at 
my  fields  and  meadows.  They  all  know  me 
and  smile  when  they  see  me,  for  they  are 
my  friends.  I  look  about  to  see  how  many 
fresh  stalks  have  come  up  in  the  night, 
and  everything  sends  forth  a  rich  fragrance 
which  intoxicates  my  senses.  My  neighbor's 
land  has  not  for  me  that  sweet  and  whole- 
some smell.  No,  it  is  the  peculiar  fragrance 
of  ownership.  Then  again  the  harvest  is 


A  FAMILY  REUNION.  157 

a  time  of  festivity  with  us.  The  farm  is 
full  of  laborers  who  cheer  each  other  on, 
alike  in  their  work  and  in  their  mirth.  I 
take  the  lead  proudly  in  everything.  The 
sun  beats  hotly  on  the  reaper  as  he  swings 
his  sickle  through  the  tall  wheat,  but  he 
wipes  the  perspiration  from  his  forehead  with 
his  sleeve  and  keeps  at  it,  and  when  evening 
comes,  he  breathes  with  full  lungs  the  cool 
breeze  which  dries  and  refreshes  him. 
You  see  those  oxen  down  there  lazily 
feeding  in  the  high  thick  grass  which  almost 
buries  them.  It  is  a  fine  sight  when  they 
come  home,  drawing  with  their  strong  necks 
the  heavy  wagon  on  which  the  yellow 
sheaves  are  piled  high.  Behind  walk  the 
harvesters  with  their  sickles  on  their  shoul- 
ders shouting  and  singing  cheerily.  The 
good  wife  has  the  supper  ready  for  them  in 
the  farmhouse,  and  I  sit  down  at  table 
with  them  and  make  them  merry  with  a 


158  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

glass  of  wine.  And  then  they  sleep  as 
heartily  all  night  as  they  have  mowed  all 
day.  You  would  hardly  believe  how  fond 
these  people  are  of  me.  Next  to  the  Em- 
peror they  think  more  of  me  than  of  any- 
body on  earth.  I  am  always  looking  after 
their  wants,  and  am  fully  repaid  for  my  pains 
by  their  respect  and  affection.  I  am  a  little 
ashamed  to  say  it,  but  I  am  King  on  my 
estate,  and  I  am  as  happy  as  a  king.  My 
neighbors'  affairs  do  not  trouble  me,  and 
those  of  the  Empire  interest  me  only  in  so 
far  as  I  am,  above  all  things,  a  good  China- 
man. I  confess  that  I  don't  care  much 
whether  it  is  John  or  Paul  who  governs  the 
country.  Rulers  have  often  changed,  for- 
tunately, but  the  sun  never  changes.  No, 
he  is  always  on  hand  at  the  right  time  to 
ripen  my  grain,  and  that's  all  that  I  ask. 
And  your  sister  thinks  just  as  I  think.  She 
appears  to  be  very  happy,  and  her  happiness 


A  FA  MIL  Y  RE  UNION.  1 59 

adds  still  more  to  my  own.  She  has  already 
twice  made  me  a  father,  and  we  have  not 
enough  of  the  little  fellows  yet.  Children 
are  no  expense  in  the  country,  you  know. 
But  the  oldest  one  belongs  to  you,  my 
friend.  You  understand  very  well  that  we 
don't  want  to  make  a  farmer  of  him  like 
ourselves.  You  shall  take  charge  of  his  edu- 
cation, and  you  shall  then  start  him  and 
lead  him  onward  in  the  splendid  career 
which  you  are  yourself  pursuing  so  honor- 
ably." 

"  Oh !  certainly,  certainly,"  answered  poor 
Fo  Hi  in  a  slightly  patronizing  tone.  "  Of 
course  this  kind  of  life  would  not  be  suit- 
able for  my  nephew.  Don't  be  uneasy.  I 
will  see  to  it." 

Now  the  oddest  thing  about  this  conver- 
sation is  that  both  men  were  in  earnest. 
Neither  of  them  saw  how  monstrously  foolish 
it  would  be,  on  the  one  hand  for  a  father 


160  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

to  drive  his  son  away  from  a  life,  the  com- 
forts of  which  he  knew  so  well,  and  on  the 
other  hand  for  an  uncle  to  launch  his 
nephew  into  a  profession  in  which  he  had 
himself  found  nothing  but  thorns.  But  the 
human  mind  is  so  constituted  that  it  moves 
with  the  greatest  ease  in  the  midst  of  the 
most  stupendous  contradictions  without  ever 
seeing  them. 

Fo  Hi  junior  was  to  remain  a  whole 
week  in  the  country.  The  novelty  of  things 
made  the  first  day  agreeably  short.  The 
second,  however,  seemed  a  little  long  to 
him  and  a  little  dull.  On  the  third  day  he 
grew  restless,  and  on  the  fourth  he  began 
to  yawn.  At  last,  on  the  fifth  day  he 
stretched  his  limbs  wearily  and  said  to  him- 
self: "  Really,  one  must  be  accustomed  to 
the  country  to  find  much  pleasure  in  it.  I 
should  die  of  ennui  in  this  land  of  boors." 
So  he  packed  his  trunk,  bade  the  family  an 


A  FA  MIL  Y  RE  UNION.  1 6 1 

affectionate  farewell,  and  returned  to  the  city 
to  visit  his  brother-in-law,  the  wholesale 
grocer.  He  found  this  worthy  man  nailing 
up  some  large  boxes,  and  all  the  while  sing- 
ing at  the  top  of  his  voice.  Chi-kau-go 
usually  sang  at  his  work  to  keep  up  his 
spirits. 

"  Well,  I  declare !  Is  this  the  way  you 
do  business  ? "  said  Fo  Hi  to  the  merry 
fellow  as  he  slapped  him  on  the  shoulder. 

"  Is  this  the  way  we  do  it  ?  Well,  I 
should  say  it  was!  We  are  not  strong- 
handed  enough,  and  so  your  father  and  I 
work  nights.  We  are  in  want  of  good  clerks 
and  we  have  to  pay  absurd  prices  for  them. 
I  have  just  engaged  one  who  has  no  ex- 
perience at  all,  and  yet  I  give  him  a  thou- 
sand taels  a  yean" 

At  this  figure  the  young  official  started 
in  surprise,  for  it  was  just  double  the 

amount     of     his    yearly     salary,   and     he     a 
11 


1 62  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

man  with  a   coral  button,  and   an   ex-king  of 
the  future. 

"And  I  shall  soon  have  to  raise  his 
wages,"  continued  Chi-kau-go.  "  But  I  don't 
complain.  I  would  give  him  one  half  more 
if  I  could  only  trust  him  thoroughly.  Oh 
yes,  there  is  money  to  be  made  in  our 
business !  But  then  you  must  work  for  it. 
Now,  how  much  better  off  you  are.  You 
live  at  your  ease,  without  much  of  anything 
to  do.  You  have  a  good  salary,  regularly 
paid,  and  you  haven't  to  lie  awake  thinking 
of  bills  falling  due.  And  besides,  you  can 
wear  a  silk  cap,  which,  to  my  mind,  is  one 
of  the  most  desirable  things  in  the  world. 
But  see  here,  I  want  that  last  little  fellow 
of  mine  to  do  as  you  have  done.  He  is  a 
bright  boy,  full  of  spirit  and  ready  with  all 
sorts  of  funny  speeches  which  make  his 
mother  and  myself  split  our  sides  laughing. 
Of  course  I  don't  mean  to  say  that  he 


A  FAMILY  REUNION.  m    163 

will  get  as  high  up  as  you.  But  if  you 
will  give  him  a  shove,  he  will  make  his 
way  with  the  best  of  them.  It's  for  him 
that  I  am  working.  Twenty  years  from 
now  the  business  will  be  worth  a  good 
deal  of  money,  and  then  we  shall  sell  out. 
And  as  sure  as  I  live  it  shall  all  be  his 
some  day. " 

"  Very  good !  You  can  count  on  me  to 
do  the  right  thing  by  him, "  said  Fo  Hi 
with  an  assuring  gesture. 


CHAPTER    XVIII.;, 


IN     WHICH    OLD     LI-JOU-LIN     TURNS     UP    AGAIN. 

•* 

"  WELL,  I  declare !  Is  that  you  ? "  ex- 
claimed Mr.  Fo  Hi,  senior,  one  day  as  he 
let  in  old  Li-jou-lin.  "  How  long  it  is  since 
we  have  had  a  sight  of  you!  Where  have 
you  come  from  now  ? " 

"  From  Japan,"  answered  the  old  philoso- 
pher. 

"  From  Japan  ?  What  an  idea,  to  go  to 
Japan !  " 

"Well,  there  was  a  very  handsome  young 
man  in  Pekin,  who  parted  his  hair  in  the 
middle  so  beautifully  that  he  was  a  particu- 
lar favorite  of  the  wife  of  a  high  officer  of 
the  Imperial  Household.  He  had  but  a 
single  fault.  He  was  rather  too  fond  of  the 

society  of  some   young   ladies  who   were  not 
(164) 


OLD  LI-JOU-LIN  TURNS  UP  AGAIN.        165 

received  at  Court.  This  displeased  the  great 
lady,  and  she  spoke  about  it  to  the  Minister. 
This  dignitary,  with  his  usual  fatherly  be- 
nevolence, sent  for  the  young  man,  gave 
him  a  scientific  mission  to  Japan,  and 
selected  me  to  accompany  him.  I  did  the 
work,  and  the  young  man  drew  the  salary. 
He  was  rewarded  for  the  journey  with  the 
Cross  of  the  Order  of  Merit,  and  I  with  a 
book  in  which  he  will  sign  his  name.  I  am 
delighted  that  I  have  been  able  to  study  so 
closely  the  customs  and  the  laws  of  a  people 
with  whose  great  writers  only  I  was  for- 
merly acquainted.  Even  the  admirers  of 
female  beauty  have  their  good  points,  and 
the  Ministers  who  reward  them  are  very 
obliging  gentlemen !  " 

This  speech  was  not  very  clear  to  Mr.  Fo 
Hi,  who  was  listening  with  his  mouth  wide 
open.  But  when  two  persons  are  conversing, 
if  one  of  them  understands,  that,  of  itself 


i66  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

makes  things  very  entertaining.  But  Li-jou- 
lin  turned  the  conversation  by  asking :  "And 
how  are  matters  with  your  son,  Mr.  Fo 
Hi?" 

At  this  question  the  worthy  tradesman 
jerked  up  his  head  like  a  horse  who  feels 
the  cut  of  the  whip  and  starts  into  a 
quick  trot.  For  half  an  hour  without  stop- 
ping he  went  on  talking  about  the  merits, 
the  virtues,  the  success,  and  the  hopes  of 
his  son.  When  the  good  soul  once  took  a 
start,  it  was  for  no  short  run.  The  old 
philosopher  had  no  thought  of  stopping  him. 
He  was  busy  trying  to  make  out  the  truth 
amidst  this  torrent  of  words,  all  the  time 
rubbing  his  chin  with  the  palm  of  his  hand, 
while  his  little  eyes  sparkled  maliciously. 

"  What  a  happy  father  you  are !  "  at  length 
he  broke  out.  "A  truly  happy  father!  Do 
let  me  have  a  little  conversation  with  this 
dear  child." 


OLD  Ll-JOU-LIN  TURNS  UP  AGAIN.        167 

So  he  carried  Fo  Hi  off  for  a  walk,  for 
the  young  man  was  not  unwilling  to  go. 
He  took  him  to  a  hill  from  which  the 
eye  commanded  an  extended  view.  On  one 
side  could  be  seen  the  busiest  streets  of  the 
town,  in  which  the  old  man  pointed  out  to 
his  companion  the  inhabitants,  who  looked 
like  so  many  little  black  ants,  hurrying  about 
in  every  direction,  each  intent  upon  his  own 
business.  On  the  other  side  the  vision 
ranged  over  the  open  country  where  in  a 
secluded  ravine  could  be  descried  a  large 
building  from  which,  at  intervals,  the  wind 
brought  the  sound  of  machinery  in  motion. 
Here  Li-jou-lin  pointed  out  the  laborers  who 
were  coming  out  of  the  building,  bending 
under  the  weight  of  the  heavy  burdens 
which  they  were  carrying  on  their  shoulders. 
And  here  and  there  in  the  spreading  plain 
were  men  holding  the  plough  and  guiding 
the  bright  share  through  the  steaming  earth. 


1 68  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

"  Does  not  this  scene  of  busy  activity  give 
you  pleasure  ? "  he  asked  of  the  young  man. 

"Oh!  certainly,  certainly!"  answered  Fo 
Hi,  who  was,  really,  quite  indifferent  to  the 
whole  thing. 

"  Yes,"  continued  the  old  man,  u  labor  is 
beautiful.  There  is  nothing  so  good  and  so 
beautiful  on  earth." 

Then  turning  suddenly  to  the  young  man 
he  asked  him  point-blank : 

"  Why  is  it   that   you    do  nothing  ?  " 

"  Nothing  ?  Why,  I  have  a  profession 
which  does  not  leave  me  a  single  spare 
moment!" 

"  Yes,  you  are  busy  but  you  do  not  work. 
To  work  is  not  merely  to  fill  a  few  hours 
of  life  with  some  kind  of  occupation.  In 
that  sense,  of  whom  could  it  be  said,  that 
he  does  not  work  ?  We  are  always  doing 
something,  even  if  it  be  no  more  than 
threading  pearls.  That  only  is  work,  in  the 


OLD  LI- JOU- LIN  TURNS  UP  AGAIN.        169 

true  sense  of  the  term,  which  has  an  end 
in  view,  and  that  end  the  highest  which 
could  be  presented  to  human  activity,  the 
great  end  of  making  free  both  him  who 
works,  and  those  who  are  born  of  him.  To 
emancipate  one's  self  and  one's  posterity  from 
the  miseries  of  servitude,  that  is  the  true 
and  only  work.  Look  at  that  man  down 
there  who  is  bending  over  the  soil,  and  who 
appears  to  be  working  in  it  so  industriously. 
I  am  acquainted  with  him.  He  commenced 
life  as  a  farmer's  boy.  He  drudged  long  for 
other  people  that  he  might  lay  up,  little  by 
little,  enough  to  buy  a  bit  of  land.  At  last 
he  accomplished  his  object  and  became  a 
landed  proprietor.  And  now  he  is  anxious 
to  enlarge  his  estate.  He  is  thinking  of  his 
oldest  son,  who  will  take  up  the  work  where 
the  father  lays  it  down,  and  who  by  con- 
tinually adding  to  it  will  make  of  this  little 
corner  a  great  and  rich  domain.  This  man 


1 70  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

\ 

is  laying  the  foundation  of  an  estate  and  a 
dynasty.  He  is  becoming  a  king,  and  a 
father  of  kings.  He  is  working. 

"And  your  father  is  working  also,  my 
dear  boy.  He  began  in  a  stall,  where  I  saw 
him  for  many  years  engaged  in  selling  rice 
by  the  handful  to  the  passers.  The  stall  at 
last  changed  into  a  shop,  and  then  the  shop 
into  a  large  store,  and  now  Mr.  Fo  Hi, 
senior,  is  one  of  the  principal  merchants  ot 
the  place.  He  has  established  a  large  busi- 
ness. He  is  thinking  that  one  of  these 
days  his  son-in-law,  instead  of  his  son,  will 
inherit  it  to  pass  it  on  down  to  his  grand- 
children. Thus  he  has,  little  by  little,  risen 
out  of  servitude,  and  is  at  the  same  time 
emancipating  his  posterity.  This  again  is 
real  work. 

"  But  as  for  you,  my  friend,  what  end  have 
you  in  view?  You  will  do  to-morrow  just 
what  you  did  yesterday.  You  will  do  the 


OLD  LI-JOU-LIN  TURNS  UP  AGAIN.        171 

same  thing  again  every  day  in  the  week, 
and  will  still  be  doing  it  ten  years  from  now, 
with  no  hope  of  any  good  result.  What  do 
you  expect  to  found  ?  Will  you  ever  be 
free  ?  If  you  should  ever  have  children  will 
you  bequeath  them  that  inestimable  good, 
liberty  ?  No,  they  will  enter  upon  the  career 
which  you  have  pursued,  at  the  very  point 
from  which  you  yourself  started,  and  with 
just  as  little  result  for  themselves  and  for 
their  children.  You  will  have  passed  through 
the  world  like  a  summer  torrent  which 
leaves  behind  it  a  dry  bed.  The  life  which 
you  are  leading  is  of  no  use  to  anyone.  It 
is  disastrous  to  yourself,  for  it  is  undermin- 
ing and  gradually  destroying  the  intelligence 
which  God  has  given  you." 

Just  here  Fo  Hi  made  a  motion  as  if  to 
interrupt  him,  but  the  old  philosopher  con- 
tinued with  an  air  of  authority : 

"  Let   me   finish   what    I   am   saying.     Yes, 


172  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

my    dear    boy,    your    faculties     are     growing 

• 

weaker  every  day.  In  the  end  they  will  be 
completely  extinguished,  and  you  will  .have 
come  to  that  point  of  moral  insensibility, 
where  you  will  not  even  regret  the  loss.  In- 
dependent work  refreshes  and  nourishes  the 
soul.  It  requires  the  continuous  exercise  of 
originating  power,  and  the  unceasing  appli- 
cation of  all  the  energy  of  the  will.  And 
this  vigorous  exercise  makes  the  mind  grow, 
and  preserves  the  flexibility  and  vigor  of 
that  active  energy  which  is  within  the  man, 
and  which  spurs  him  on  to  great  enterprises. 
But  what  you  are  doing  requires  from  you 
no  effort  of  the  mind,  nor  even  of  the  body. 
You  are  harnessed  to  your  work,  and  you  go 
on  your  way,  with  your  head  down,  looking 
neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left,  with 
melancholy  indifference  performing  your  day's 
work,  which  rolls  on  without  a  jolt  in  an 
interminable  rut.  Is  this  what  it  is  to  work  ? " 


OLD  LI- JOU- LIN  TURNS  UP  AGAIN.        173 

"  Now,  don't  you  know  very  well,"  replied 
Fo  Hi,  with  a  forced  smile,  "that  if  every 
one  were  to  reason  as  you  do  the  Gov- 
ernment would  have  no  one  to  attend  to  its 
business  ?  " 

"Would  to  God!  Would  to  God!"  ex- 
claimed Li-jou-lin.  "  Then,  perhaps,  the 
Government  would  not  meddle  with  what 
does  not  concern  it.  It  would  not  assume 
charge,  at  so  much  expense  of  time  and 
money,  of  so  many  enterprises  which  it  con- 
ducts with  such  poor  success.  It  would 
leave  to  the  citizens  the  business  of  con- 
structing roads,  of  digging  canals,  of  mak- 
ing cigars,  of  teaching  children,  of  preach- 
ing morality  to  men,  and  of  doing  a  thou- 
sand other  things  which  they  understand 
infinitely  better  than  does  the  Government'. 
It  would  not  look  after  everybody's  cows, 
and  the  cows  would  be  all  the  better  taken 
care  of,  for  that  very  reason.  It  would  be 


174  THE  MISERIES  CF  FO  III. 

satisfied  to  regulate  and  to  maintain  the  dig- 
nity of  the  Empire  abroad,  and  its  tran- 
quillity at  home.  And  for  this,  its  legitimate 
business,  only  a  small  number  of  employees 
would  be  necessary.  These  it  would  find 
readily  among  those,  who,  having  no  longer 
any  need  to  devote  their  energies  to  their 
own  private  affairs,  would  be  free  to  devote 
themselves  to  the  affairs  of  the  public.  It 
would  intrust  them  with  important  and  dif- 
ficult business,  and  would  pay  them  accord- 
ingly. And  these  men  would  be  the  chief 
men  in  the  State,  not  merely  for  the  honor 
which  would  attach  to  their  functions,  but 
for  their  own  personal  merits.  It  would  be 
understood  that  to  fulfill  their  trust,  to  render 
to  the  country  the  services  which  she  ex- 
pects of  them,  they  would  need  more  intel- 
ligence, more  courage,  and  more  energy  even 
than  their  ancestors  had  shown  in  setting 
them  free  by  making  them  rich." 


OLD  LI- JOU- LIN  TURNS  UP  AGAIN.        175 

"  What  a  dream  ! "  said  Fo  Hi,  shrugging 
his  shoulders. 

"  Do  you  think  so,  my  friend  ?  And  yet, 
I  tell  you,  I  have  just  come  from  a  country 
where  this  dream  is  a  great  and  beautiful 
reality.  We  are  separated  from  the  Japanese 
people  by  a  mere  arm  of  the  sea.  But  to 
see  how  different  their  ideas  and  methods 
are  to  ours,  one  would  say  that  the  vast 
Pacific  lay  between  the  two  countries.  There 
men  have  a  single  thought  in  life.  It  is  to 
found  an  estate  and  a  dynasty  which  will 
keep  it.  They  work  with  their  eyes  fixed 
on  the  future.  The  son  succeeds  the  father, 
and  continues  his  work,  as  he  perpetuates 
his  name  with  unconquerable  perseverance 
from  generation  to  generation.  Thus  it  is 
that  the  great  houses  rise  little  by  little 
from  nothing.  The  labor  of  generations  ac- 
cumulates gradually  until  the  happy  day 
when  the  whole  family  is  concentrated  in  one 


176  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

scion,  in  whom  are  collected  the  rich  re- 
sults of  three  or  four  centuries,  and  who, 
liberated  henceforth  from  his  own  affairs, 
devotes  himself  to  the  public,  and  has  no 
longer  any  other  interest  than  that  of  the 
state." 

"Ah!  hold  on  there!"  objected  Fo  Hi, 
"Your  Japanese  are  then  assured,  by  some 
special  favor,  of  never  having  more  than  one 
child,  are  they?" 

"Not  at  all.  But  they  have  but  one  heir." 
"And  do  you  think  that  just?" 
"This  is  the  price  at  which  alone  you  can 
have  liberty,"  said  the  old  man,  solemnly. 
"  Is  it  too  dear  a  price  to  pay  for  that  most 
precious  of  all  good  things  ?  It  is  folly  of 
the  worst  kind  to  think  that  liberty  can 
balance  itself  in  the  air  like  the  sparrows, 
without  anything  to  rest  upon.  If  it  has  no 
support  in  men  whose  sole  business  it  is  to 
defend  and  maintain  it,  it  falls  to  the  ground 


OLD  LI-JOU-LIN  TURNS  UP  AGAIN*.        177 

and  is  shattered  into  fragments.  There  is 
no  liberty  without  an  aristocracy." 

"All  men  are  equal,"  said  the  young  man, 
in  an  oracular  tone. 

"  Yes.  But  true  equality  does  not  neces- 
sitate the  abolition  of  privileges.  Some  of 
these  are  indispensable,  and  some  are  only 
expedient;  but  true  equality  asks  that  all 
privileges  should  be  accessible  to  all  men 

alike." 
12 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

IXT   WHICH    A   NEW    CHARACTER   APPEARS    ON    THE 
SCENE. 

THE  next  time  Li-jou-lin  called  on  Mr.  Fo 
Hi,  senior,  he  found  there  a  man  whose 
appearance  and  dress  at  first  surprised 
him.  It  was  easy  to  see,  by  the  whiteness 
of  his  skin  and  the  peculiarity  of  his 
features,  that  he  was  a  European.  He  had 
a  hat  with  a  brim  which  was  very  wide 
at  the  front  and  back  but  which  curled  up 
at  the  sides,  and  when  he  took  off  this 
hat  a  shining  bare  spot  was  seen  on  the  top 
of  his  head,  as  round  and  white  as  a  double 
tael  of  silver.  The  hair  grew  thickly  all 
around  it,  and  reached  down  to  the  forehead, 
which  was  quite  covered  when  the  locks 
were  smoothed  down.  He  was  dressed  in  a 
(178) 


A  NEW  CHARACTER  APPEARS.  179 

long  black  robe,  and  had  a  kind  of  bib 
hanging  about  his  neck,  which  could  hardly 
be  of  any  other  use  than  to  wipe  his  mouth 
upon.  He  spoke  Chinese  with  difficulty. 
But  old  Li-jou-lin,  who  had  lived  in  Canton 
for  two  years,  knew  enough  English  and 
French  to  make  himself  understood  in  both 
of  these  languages.  After  thinking  for  a 
few  moments,  he  concluded  that  this  strange 
guest  must  be  one  of  those  Catholic  Mis- 
sidnaries  of  whom  he  had  frequently  heard 
and  of  whose  doings  he  had  read  in  the 
French  newspapers.  So  he  greeted  him  cor- 
dially. For  he  liked  anything  which  looked 
like  courage,  and  it  certainly  requires  cour- 
age to  cross  the  seas,  and  to  go,  sustained 
by  faith  alone,  to  preach  an  unknown  God 
to  people  who  are  regarded  as  barbarians. 
The  missionary  quickly  saw  that  he  had  to 
do  with  an  honest  and  educated  man,  and 
began  to  converse  frankly  with  him.  He 


i  So  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  III. 

complained  of  the  persecutions  inflicted  upon 
those  who  were  bringing"  the  Gospel  to  the 
Celestial  Empire,  and  in  vigorous  terms 
taxed  the  Emperors  with  blindness,  in- 
justice, and  cruelty. 

"  But/'  said  old  Li-jou-lin,  in  answer  to 
these  complaints,  "if  I  should  take  a  no- 
tion to  go  to  your  country  with  a  dozen 
Chinese  priests,  for  the  purpose  of  preaching 
our  God  openly  to  your  people,  how  would 
you  receive  us  ?  " 

"  Oh !  the  case  is  not  supposable  ! "  was 
the  priest's  reply. 

"  Let  us,  however,  assume  it,  and  answer 
my  question." 

"  Alas ! "  said  the  man  in  the  black 
robe,  raising  his  eyes  to  heaven.  "  Now- 
adays they  would  merely  throw  you  into 
prison.  But  two  hundred  years  ago,  in 
the  good  old  times,  they  would  very  justly 
have  burned  you  alive  in  the  public  square, 


A  NEW  CHARACTER  APPEARS.  181 

for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  edification  of 
your  fellow-creatures.  It  would  have  been  a 
very  cheering  spectacle  to  the  eyes  of  the 

faithful." 

• 

"I  don't  doubt  it  at  all,"  replied  the 
philosopher.  "  But  you  ought  not  to  think 
it  strange  if  you  are  treated  here  as  we 
should  be  treated  in  your  country ! " 

"Oh!  But  it  is  a  very  different  thing! 
We  are  bringing  you  the  truth !  " 

"The     truth!     How    do  you   know  that?" 

"  Because  God  himself  has  revealed  it  to  us." 

"What!  Do  you  think  that  God  has  not 
revealed  it  to  us  also  ?  " 

"•How  can  you  talk  of  your  God,  who 
is  only  a  false  God  ? " 

"  Well,  I  will  not  say  as  much  of 
yours,"  responded  Li-jou-lin,  very  politely, 
"for  I  regard  all  the  Gods  as  true  who 
counsel  men  to  live  rightly,  and  I  know 
of  none  who  give  any  other  counsel." 


1 82  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

"  Is  this  what  your  God  does  ?  "  cried  the 
missionary,  "  when  he  teaches  you  to  throw 
your  new-born  children  to  the  swine  ? " 

Now  Li-jou-lin  was  a  philosopher,  but  he 
could  not  suppress  a  sign  of  indignation  at 
this  horrible  charge.  Indeed,  his  countenance 
showed  his  feelings  so  plainly  that  all 
those  who  were  sitting  by  eagerly  asked 
him  what  it  was  that  the  man  in  the  black 
robe  could  have  said.  So  he  translated  to 
them  the  missionary's  words,  at  which  they 
were  all  filled  with  horror  and  disgust. 
But  when  the  first  rush  of  feeling  had  sub- 
sided, the  philosopher  replied,  in  a  calmer 
but  still  agitated  voice : 

"  This  is  a  terrible  calumny,  and  very 
easily  charged  upon  a  people  with  whom, 
you  are  but  imperfectly  acquainted.  May 
your  God  forgive  you  for  it !  It  is  true, 
there  are  unnatural  mothers  in  China,  as 
there  are  everywhere  else.  Have  /  you  none 


A  NEW  CHARACTER  APPEARS.  183 

in  your  country  ?  Alas !  I  used  to  read 
your  newspaper  sometimes  when  I  lived  in 
Canton.  And  what  did  I  see  ?  How  many 
poor  children  drowned,  smothered,  roasted, 
buried  alive,  and  even  thrown  to  unclean 
animals !  How  many  mothers  guilty  of 
slaughtering  their  offspring!  How  many 
murders  committed  in  cold  blood,  and  some- 
times with  the  most  refined  ingenuity  of 
barbarity  and  with  the  most  incredible 
cruelty!  The  records  of  your  courts  are 
crimson  with  the  blood  of  these  poor  little 
things ;  and  if  one  can  judge  by  the  num- 
ber of  the  guilty  who  are  brought  to  jus- 
tice, how  many  more  there  must  be  who 
escape  the  hands  of  the  law !  For  this 
kind  of  crime  easily  hides  itself  in  the  dark, 
and  many  of  them  will  never  break  the 
silence  in  which  they  lie  buried  until  the 
moment  when  God  will  bring  them  to  light 
at  the  last  great  day.  But  is  it  right, 


1 84  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

because  in  a  nation  of  a  hundred  millions 
of  people  there  are  a  few  monsters,  to  ac- 
cuse the  whole  nation  of  such  crimes,  and 
include  all  its  inhabitants  in  one  sweeping 
aspersion  of  guilt  ?  Believe  me,  sir,  the 
women  of  our  land  have  feelings  as  well 
as  your  women  in  Europe.  They  also  look 
upon  it  as  a  blessing  from  Heaven,  when 
they  have  the  happiness  of  becoming  moth- 
ers. They  would  give  their  lives  for  the 
children  whom  they  have  brought  into  the 
world.  Those  who  have  told  you  different 
have  deceived  you  abominably." 

"You  are  vexed  with  them  unjustly, "  re- 
plied the  missionary,  in  a  benevolent  and 
penitent  voice ;  "  those  who  have  brought 
these  reports  are  pious  people,  who  were 
inspired  only  by  a  praiseworthy  charity. 
Their  stories  have  excited  the  compassion 
of  Catholic  nations.  And  all  the  faithful 
have  banded  together  to  rescue  these  poor 


A  NEW  CHARACTER  APPEARS.  185 

children  who  are  devoted,  by  the  misfor- 
tune of  their  birth  to  the  tusks  of  the 
swine  and  the  flames  of  hell.  Every  week 
they  give  a  small  sum  of  money  for  their 
poor  little  fellow  creatures  in  China.  These 
small  contributions  are  continually  accumu- 
lating in  our  hands,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
year  they  amount  to  a  very  considerable 
sum.  We  use  it,  in  accordance  with  the 
intention  of  the  contributors,  to  buy  up 
those  of  your  children  whom  their  mothers 
abandon." 

"  And  have  you  bought    many   of   them  ?  " 
"  Well,   no,    I     have     not     yet     had     that 
pleasure." 

"And  I  hope  that  you  will  never  have 
it.  Let  me  tell  you,  sir,  to  keep  your  pity 
and  your  money  for  your  own  unfortunates. 
I  am  told  you  have  not  a  few  of  them  at 
home.  You  will  have  enough  to  do  to 
feed  your  own  poor.  After  you  have  done 


186  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

that,  you  may  think  of  ours  if  you  want  to ; 
but  meanwhile  we  will  take  care  of  them 
ourselves.  As  for  our  children,  we  do  not 
sell  them  at  any  price,  and  the  money 
which  is  given  for  that  purpose  is  money 
thrown  away." 

"  It  is  not  thrown  away  on  everybody, 
however,"  muttered  the  missionary. 

Fc  Hi,  junior,  at  the  end  of  this  remarkable 
conversation  went  up  to  the  philosopher, 
and  pointing  to  the  man  in  the  black  robe, 
who  had  taken  his  hat  and  was  bow- 
ing himself  out,  said  in  a  low  voice : 

"This  man,  who  crosses  the  sea,  who  ex- 
poses himself  to  a  thousand  dangers  and 
faces  a  thousand  privations  to  carry  to  stran- 
gers the  Gospel  of  his  God — do  you  dare  to 
say  that  this  man  is  not  working  ?  And 
yet  he  is  founding  nothing.  He  has  no 
family,  and  never  will  have  any." 

"Yes,"     said     Li-jou-lin,    "there   are     men 


A  NEW  CHARACTER  APPEARS.  187 

who  have  no  family  but  humanity.  They 
are  artists,  scholars,  priests.  They  are  found- 
ing the  kingdom  of  justice  and  truth  among 
the  nations  of  the  earth.  I  know  of  no 
grander  nor  better  work ! " 

"  Suppose,  then,  that  I  should  become  an 
artist  ? "  asked  the  young  man  eagerly. 

But  the  philosopher  smiled,  and  tapping 
him  playfully  on  the  cheek,  replied :  "  Be- 
come your  brother-in-law's  clerk !  That  is 
the  best  advice  I* can  give  you." 


CHAPTER  XX. 

FO    HI     FINDS    HIMSELF    BAD    COMPANY. 

A  __ 

IT  was  too  late  to  follow  Li-jou-lin's  ad- 
vice. After  one  has  once  become  a  public 
official,  it  is  very  difficult  ever  to  be  any- 
thing else.  For  in  this  line  of  employment 
the  mind  loses  all  its  elasticity  and  force. 
It  forgets  to  depend  upon  itself,  and  gradu- 
ally grows  unaccustomed  to  personal  effort. 
What  is  more  agreeable  than  to  leave  to 
others  the  tiresome  task  of  thinking  and 
willing,  and  merely  to  draw  one's  salary 
regularly  on  the  last  day  of  the  month  ? 
What  is  more  delightful  than  to  be  exempt 
both  from  hope  and  fear  alike  ?  The  Public 
Service  is  a  very  comfortable  pillow  for  a 
sluggish  mind.  And  the  man  who  enters 

upon     it    is    soon   reduced    to    that   state   of 
(iSS) 


FO  HI  FINDS  HIMSELF  BAD  COMPANY.    189 

enervating  security,  so  that  when  the 
time  comes  for  him  to  assert  his  inde- 
pendence he  has  no  longer  the  power  to 
shake  off  the  lethargy  with  which  his 
whole  being  is  benumbed.  He  dares  not 
look  steadily  into  the  future,  and  with  closed 
eyes  gives  himself  up,  passively,  to  the 
current  of  events.  The  worst  effect  of  serv- 
itude is,  that,  in  the  end,  it  renders  man 
incapable  of  liberty.  The  negro  learns  at 
last  to  like  the  bread  of  slavery,  and  to 
want  no  other. 

Fo  Hi  junior  put  on  again  the  yoke 
which  he  had  thus  far  worn,  and  started  for 
his  new  post.  It  was  at  a  very  little  town 
on  the  sea-shore.  It  is  so  unimportant  and 
so  little  known,  that  the  Memoirs  from  which 
this  veracious  story  is  abstracted,  have  not 
so  much  as  taken  the  trouble  to  tell  us  its 
name.  The  first  few  days  of  our  hero's 
sojourn  here  were  filled  up  with  the  initia- 


190  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

tory  duties  of  the  position,  which  were 
very  laborious. 

It  was  the  time  when  the  illustrious  Fou- 
ya-no,  Governor  of  Pekin,  had  taken  it  into 
his  head  to  demolish  three-fourths  of  the 
city  for  the  purpose  of  rebuilding  it  more 
conveniently  and  beautifully.  The  most  of 
the  provincial  Governors  followed  his  ex- 
ample, and  it  seemed  as  if  they  would  all 
be  taken  with  this  craze  for  demolition.  Fo 
Hi,  therefore,  found  half  of  the  population 
camping  out  in  the  midst  of  the  ruins  of 
their  former  habitations.  He  started  out  at 
once  to  find  apartments,  but  there  were  none 
to  be  had. 

"And  where  do  you  live  ? "  the  Governor 
asked  him  when  he  went  to  call  on  him, 
according  to  etiquette. 

"  On  the  public  square  for  the  present," 
answered  Fo  Hi.  "  There  are  no  more 
houses." 


FO  HI  FINDS  HIMSELF  BAD  COMPANY.    191 

"Just  so,"  responded  the  dignitary.  "They 
would  hinder  you  from  seeing  the  town. 
But  just  wait  ten  years,  and  you  shall  have 
some  palaces  to  choose  from." 

But  meanwhile  Fo  Hi  found  no  other 
palace  than  a  little  ugly  room  furnished  with 
some  old  second-hand  furniture.  But  the 
window  opened  on  the  sea,  and  the  fine  view 
pleased  him  so  much  that  he  was  reconciled 
to  the  rest.  When  he  could  get  away  from 
his  daily  tasks,  he  leaned  on  the  railing  of 
his  balcony,  and  there  remained  for  hours  at 
a  time,  lazily  looking  out  over  the  vast  waste 
of  waters,  and  lost  in  vague  reveries.  But 
soon  he  got  tired  of  this  spectacle  which,  at 
first,  had  delighted  him.  It  was  the  only 
pleasure  he  had,  and  it  soon  ceased  to  be  a 
pleasure.  He  began  to  be  awfully  bored. 
For  a  long  time  he  had  ceased  to  take  any 
pleasure  in  his  work,  and  now  had  a  perfect 
disgust  for  it.  He  dragged  himself  to  it 


192  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

from  a  mere  blind  sense  of  duty,  and  the 
sight  of  a  heap  of  stones  was  enough  to 
make  him  sick.  He  took  his  meals,  with  the 
rest  of  his  associates  who  were  unmarried,  in 
a  miserable  cook-shop,  where  they  were  poi- 
soned with  the  horrible  cooking,  with  every 
mark  of  the  highest  respect.  Here  he  lin- 
gered as  long  as  he  could  over  each  meal, 
not  because  he  found  anything  entertaining 
in  the  company  of  his  fellow- officers.  He 
knew  by  heart  the  conversations  which  were 
repeated  again  and  again  every  day.  They 
never  talked  of  anything  but  professional 
trifles,  day  after  day  going  into  endless  dis- 
cussions over  a  stone.  He  could  tell  before- 
hand all  the  jokes  and  puns  which  would 
be  brought  forth  to  garnish  and  enliven  the 
hour's  discourse.  And  yet  he  dreaded  the 
moment  when  he  would  be  left  alone  with 
himself.  He  went  back  to  his  room  impelled 
by  no  other  motive  than  that  he  was  tired 


FO  HI  FINDS  HIMSELF  BAD  COMPANY.    193 

of  remaining  out  of  doors.  He  threw  him- 
self upon  an  old  settee  and  tried  to  kill  time 
by  going  to  sleep,  but  sleep  would  not  come 
at  his  call.  Then  he  got  up,  and  walked 
around  his  room,  arranging,  disarranging, 
and  fidgetting  about.  At  last,  moved  by  a 
secret  and  irresistible  restlessness,  he  went 
out,  but  the  ennui  which  had  driven  him 
from  home  soon  drove  him  back  again. 
Then  he  took  up  a  book  and  tried  to  read. 
But  he  was  no  longer  capable  of  the  long 
and  close  attention  demanded  by  serious 
works,  and  novels  only  sickened  him.  Then 
he  yawned  at  the  top  of  his  voice.  People 
who  were  in  the  habit  of  passing  under  his 
windows  had  sometimes  heard  strange  noises, 
something  like  the  creaking  of  a  rusty 
weather-vane.  It  was  Mr.  Fo  Hi  amusing 
himself  by  reading  aloud.  At  last  the  vol- 
ume fell  from  his  hands,  and  he  looked  at 

it   without    seeing    it,  with    a    dull    eye    and 
13 


194  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  ///. 

pouting  lips.  His  brain  buzzed  like  a  bee- 
hive with  the  idle  thoughts  with  which  it 
was  full.  Then  he  lighted  his  pipe  and 
smoked  for  two  or  three  hours  without  stop- 
ping. Then  he  felt  his  head  grow  heavy', 
his  eyelids  closed,  and  his  mind  subsided 
into  vacancy.  At  last  he  was  happy. 

But  a  year  of  this  kind  of  life  made  a 
frightful  change  in  Fo  Hi.  His  eyes  had 
been  bright  and  sparkling,  but  they  gradually 
grew  dull  and  lifeless.  His  face  became 
bloated,  and  took  on  that  sallow  hue  notice- 
able in  old  maids  who  are  tired  of  single 
blessedness.  Sometimes  his  features  wore  an 
expression  of  idiotic  bliss,  and  at  other  times 
looked  strangely  emaciated,  wrinkled,  and 
anxious.  His  temper  turned  sour,  and  he 
became  sensitive  and  irritable.  He  took  fire 
from  his  miseries,  and  frequently  acted  with 
singular  harshness  toward  his  inferiors.  One 
day  when  he  was  going  along  the  street  in 


FO  HI  FINDS  HIMSELF  BAD  COMPANY.    195 

all  the  glory  of  his  best  blue  suit  em- 
broidered with  silver,  a  subordinate  forgot  to 
raise  his  cap  to  him.  Fo  Hi  followed  the 
matter  up  with  an  obstinacy  which  can  only 
be  explained  by  the  emptiness  of  his  exist- 
ence, for  he  was  not  of  a  malicious  dis- 
position. He  even  thought  of  having  the 
poor  wretch  discharged,  who  threw  himself, 
at  length,  at  his  feet  and  implored  his  for- 
giveness. One  of  his  associates,  a  good  man 
and  burdened  with  a  family,  obtained  a 
gratuity  of  fifty  taels.  At  another  time  Fo 
Hi  would  have  been  delighted  at  this  piece 
of  good  luck  falling  to  a  comrade.  But 
now  he  resented  it  bitterly,  and  for  fifteen 
days  talked  about  it  continually  in  an  envi- 
ous tone,  all  the  while  denouncing  the  in- 
justice of  it.  He  ill-treated  the  people  who 
had  business  with  him,  and  tried  to  exas- 
perate them,  and  to  wreak  upon  them  the 
sufferings  of  his  own  mind.  It  was  a  kind 


I9<3  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

of  revenge  which  relieved  and  gratified  him. 
The  mean  and  base  passions  were  growing 
luxuriantly  in  his  bosom,  like  weeds  in  a 
fertile  soil  which  is  no  longer  cultivated. 

But  Fo  Hi  had  not  yet  reached  the  point 
of  insensibility  to  his  condition.  He  saw 
himself  sinking,  little  by  little,  into  the  abyss, 
and  sometimes  he  excused  himself,  saying 
flippantly :  "  Oh,  pshaw  !  what  do  I  care  !  " 
But  more  often  he  was  furious  with  himself, 
called  himself  a  fool  and  a  knave,  and 
worked  himself  to  a  high  point  of  good 
resolution.  But  these  better  moments  did  not 
last  long,  and  he  fell  back  again  into  the 
depths  of  his  misery. 

One  morning  a  young  man  called  on  him 
whose  face  he  did  not  recognize,  but  who 
said  to  him: 

"  I  have  just  come  from  your  family,  who 
gave  me  this  letter  and  charged  me  to  de- 
liver it  to  you  personally." 


FO  HI  FINDS  HIMSELF  BAD  COMPANY.    197 

"Are  you  acquainted  with  my  family?" 
asked  Fo  Hi,  in  a  voice  tremulous  with  feel- 
ing. 

"  I  am  a  commercial  traveller.  Mr.  Fo  Hi, 
senior,  with  whom  I  have  business  relations, 
knew  that  I  would  pass  through  your  town, 
and  asked  me  to  bring  you  some  good 
news." 

"  Well,  what   is  it  ? "   said   the   young  man. 

"  Why,  everything  is  turning  out  splendidly. 
Do  you  know  that  your  father  is  getting  to 
be  a  great  man  ?  The  Emperor  actually 
wanted  to  appoint  him  a  member  of  the 
Municipal  Council.  He  refused  the  honor 
on  the  ground  that  he  was  too  old/ but 
recommended  his  son-in-law,  who  has  been 
very  graciously  accepted  as  a  substitute  by 
His  Majesty.  The  family  made  a  great  ban- 
quet in  honor  of  the  appointment.  They  had 
kept  one  empty  place  at  the  table.  It  was 
for  you.  By  chance  I  called  upon  your 


198  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

father  that  very  day,  and  the  empty 
place  was  immediately  given  to  me.  We 
all  drank  your  health,  and  in  the  evening 
we  danced  far  into  the  night.  I  danced 
with  Madame  Chi-kau-go,  your  sister,  who 
seemed  to  be  the  happiest  of  wives.  Ohl 
that  house  doesn't  breed  sorrow,  I  can  tell 
you ! " 

"But  Pe-ka-o,  my  other  brother-in-law,  was 
he  at  the  reunion  ? " 

"  No.  He  sent  his  wife.  But  he  was  not 
able  to  be  there  himself.  He  was  engaged 
on  an  inspection." 

"An  inspection!  Inspecting  his  farm,  I 
suppose  ? " 

"  Bless  you,  no !  He  is  inspecting  other 
people's  farms,  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor, 
to  whom  he  reports  the  condition  in  which 
he  finds  them.  He  is  a  very  skilful  agri- 
culturist, and  has  made  a  great  reputation 
in  the  country  by  his  enterprise  in  trying 


FO  HI  FINDS  HIMSELF  BAD  COMPANY.    199 

new  methods  of  culture.  He  is  a  great 
favorite  with  the  Minister." 

"  A  favorite  with   the  Minister !  " 

u  Of  course.  The  Minister  of  Agriculture 
has  already  sent  for  him  frequently  to  con- 
fer with  him  on  subjects  in  which  he  is  in- 
terested. He  can  not  fail  to  reach  a  high 
position.  Next  year  it  is  very  probable  that 
he  will  get  the  Cross  of  the  Order  of  Merit 
But  how  are  you  getting  on,  my  boy  ? " 

"  Oh !  very  well,  very  well,  indeed.  It 
couldn't  be  better,"  said  Fo  Hi.  But  he 
said  it  in  so  piteous  a  voice  that  anybody 
else  would  have  guessed  the  truth.  But 
this  commercial  traveller  was  a  good  fellow, 
with  whom  it  was  a  principle  that  it  is 
quite  enough  to  take  care  of  one's  own 
affairs  without  worrying  about  other  people's. 

"Good!  that's  the  thing!"  he  shouted, 
and  squeezing  Fo  Hi's  hand  warmly,  he  took 
himself  off,  whistling  a  gay  hunting  air. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

WHAT    FO     HI    THINKS    OF     THE   NEWS. 

WHEN  his  visitor  had  gone  Fo  Hi  threw 
himself  on  the  settee,  while  great  tears 
rolled  from  his  eyes,  tears  of  rage  and 
jealousy.  He  struck  the  table  violently  with 
his  fist  and  exclaimed: 

"  Look  at  me !  What  had  I  done  that 
my  father  should  put  me  to  college  ?  It  is 
all  his  fault,  the  whole  of  it!  Could  I 
know  what  this  useless  and  absurd  educa- 
tion would  at  last  do  for  me  ?  Ought  he 
not  to  have  looked  ahead,  and  found  out 
about  it  ?  Oh !  Father,  father !  what  an 
injury  you  have  .done  me!  My  misery 
is  all  your  work !  Did  you  hate  n:e  ? 
If  you  had  loved  me,  would  you  not 
have  let  me  live  near  you,  rich,  happy 

and      honored,     as     you     are  ?       You     have 
(200) 


WHAT  FO  III  THINKS  OF  THE  NEWS.      201 

plunged  me  into  the  most  awful  wretchedness  !  " 
He    pulled  open   the  drawers  of  his  dress- 
ing-case,    one    after     another,     with      savage 
violence,   and  burst  out  again : 

"  Not  a  single  tael !  And  so  it  will  al- 
ways be !  I  shall  live  to  the  very  end,  poor, 
without  family,  and  without  comfort,  every- 
body's slave,  and,  worst  of  all,  the  envy  of 
fools !  Oh  my  father !  my  father  !  " 

He  was  extremely  excited,  and  ran  on 
in  a  loud  voice,  with  his  fists  savagely 
clenched.  The  old  habit  of  filial  respect 
held  back  upon  his  lips  the  curses  which 
came  very  near  escaping.  But  they  boiled 
up  in  his  heart  if  he  did  not  speak  them. 
At  last,  however,  his  eyes  fell  on  the  letter 
which  he  had  left  open.  He  had  only  run 
through  it  hastily,  but  now  he  took  it  up 
and  read  it  again  with  more  care.  His 
father,  after  some  items  of  news  from  the 
family,  ended  by  saying: 


202  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

"I  am  very  old,  my  dear  boy,  and  the 
day  is  not  distant  when  I  shall  have  to 
give  an  account  to  the  great  Tao  of  what 
T  have  done  here  below.  But  I  shall  ap- 
pear boldly  before  him  with  my  hands 
filled  with  the  benedictions  of  my  children. 
Every  year  of  your  lives  will  plead  for  me 
in  that  day.  Your  mother  and  I  have 
given  our  lives  to  make  yours  more  comfort- 
able. We  have  forgotten  ourselves  for  you 
all,  but  especially  for  you,  my  dear  boy. 
You  have  always  been  our  best  loved  child,  . 
and  we  sacrificed  for  you  even  your  sis- 
ters' future.  Perhaps  it  was  wrong,  but 
God  has  not  punished  us  for  this  excessive 
love.  He  has  blessed  the  marriage  of  our 
daughters,  as  he  has  watched  over  you.  I  am 
a  happy  father,  and  I  shall  die  without  regret, 
if,  before  I  pass  into  the  other  world,  I 
can  embrace  you  once  more,  and  hear  from 
your  lips  your  last  words  of  gratitude.'* 


WHAT  FO  HI  THINKS  OF  THE  NEWS.      203 

"Poor  father!'1  said  Fo  Hi,  deeply  touched 
by  these  kind  words ;  and  he  burst  again 
into  tears.  But  this  time  they  were  real 
tears  which  fell,  drop  after  drop,  upon  the 
wicked  words  that  he  had  uttered,  and 
washed  them  out  of  the  book  of  his  life. 

"  And  why  should  I  not  be  happy  ?  Is 
it  then  absolutely  impassible  ?  Are  not 
these  torments  which  I  am  enduring,  the 
results  of  my  character  rather  than  of  my 
circumstances  ?  Is  there  not  a  man  among 
my  associates  who  is  contented  with  his 
lot  ?"  He  passed  them  all  in  review  before 
his  mind.  With  some  of  them  he  was  not 
well  enough  acquainted  to  know  whether 
they  were  really  contented  or  not. 

"  It  is  true  they  haven't  the  appearance 
of  suffering.  But  then  who  would  think 
from  my  looks,  that  twenty  times  a  day  I 
have  a  great  mind  to  throw  myself  into 
the  sea  ?  When  I  walk  about  the  streets 


204  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

in  my  uniform  embroidered  with  silver, 
what  do  they  see  but  a  smiling  face  ? 
Who  can  say  positively  that  they  do  not  suf- 
fer the  same  torments  as  I,  or  even  worse  ? 
For  the  most  of  them  have  wives  and 
children  on  their  hands,  and  thus  their  pos- 
sibilities of  suffering  are  vastly  greater 
than  mine/' 

As  for  others,  he  had  no  doubt  of  the 
state  of  their  minds.  Day  after  day  he  had 
heard  them  complaining,  and  cursing  their 
superiors.  He  knew  that  they,  like  himself, 
were  the  prey  of  all  those  petty  and  vile 
passions  which  bury  their  stinging  points 
so  deeply  in  human  life.  "  No,'1  he  said 
with  bitter  satisfaction,  "we  are  all  convicts 
chained  together  in  the  same  galley.  Some 
sit  nearer  the  keeper  than  others  and  so 
feel  more  frequently  the  weight  of  his 
cudgel,  but  it  is  the  same  cudgel  which 
falls  upon  us  all." 


WHAT  FO  HI  THINKS  OF  THE  NEWS.      205 

But  all  at  once  he  struck  his  hand  to 
his  forehead,  like  a  man  who  suddenly  calls 
up  something  which  he  had  forgotten,  and 
exclaimed :  "  Oh !  Yes.  Le-hi-to !  I  forgot 
Le-hi-to!" 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

THE    HAPPY    LE-HI  TO. 

THIS  Le-hi-to  was  a  big  bachelor,  who  was 
always  contented  and  always  singing,  and 
whose  jovial  face  Oriental  poets  might  very 
well  have  likened  to  the  full  moon.  He 
lived  by  himself  in  a  very  retired  way,  and 
had  but  few  acquaintances  among  his  asso- 
ciates. And  yet  he  was  on  the  best  of 
terms  with  them  all,  and  ready  to  do  them 
a  kindness  whenever  it  was  needed.  Every- 
body liked  him.  His  big,  ruddy,  good- 
natured  countenance,  beaming  with  mirth,  in- 
spired confidence  and  good-will.  No  one  did 
his  work  better  or  with  an  air  of  greater 
satisfaction.  He  paid  no  obsequious  atten- 
tions to  his  superiors,  but  when  his  work 
was  done,  made  his  bow  to  them,  and  had 
(206) 


THE  HAPPY  LE-HI-TO.  207 

nothing  more  to  do  with  them.  But  he  also 
never  spoke  ill  of  them,  and  judging  from 
his  perfectly  frank  face  it  was  difficult  to 
believe  that  he  could  have  hard  feelings 
toward  anybody.  And  yet  he  had  been  in 
the  Department  for  twelve  years,  and  had 
never  obtained  the  slightest  advancement, 
although  he  had  always  conducted  himself 
in  a  most  exemplary  manner.  But  it  never 
seemed  to  trouble  him.  He  bore  philosoph- 
ically the  injustice  with  which  he  was  treated. 
In  fact  it  might  even  be  questioned  whether 
he  so  much  as  suspected  the  injustice  which 
was  done  him. 

"  Well,  to  be  sure !  "  said  Fo  Hi,  "  there 
is  a  happy  man,  or  I  am  greatly  mistaken. 
I  must  go  and  see  him,  and  get  him  to  tell 
me  his  secret." 

Now  Le-hi-to  lived  on  the  remote  out- 
skirts of  the  town,  in  a  little  house  of 
which  he  was  the  sole  occupant.  And  as 


2o8  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

he  had  no  housekeeper,  he  opened  the  door 
himself  for  Fo  Hi. 

"Why!  good  morning,  comrade!'*  he  ex- 
claimed cheerily,  giving  Fo  Hi  a  warm  grasp 
of  the  hand.  "I  am  happy  to  see  you.  I 
have  found  it!  It  was  hard  work,  but  I 
have  found  it  at  last!" 

And  he  rubbed  his  hands  with  as  much 
satisfaction  as  if  he  had  at  last  solved  the 
problem  of  squaring  the  circle. 

"  What  on  earth  have  you  found,  to  give 
you  so  much  delight  ?  "  asked  our  hero,  in 
astonishment. 

"  Hush !  Don't  say  a  word !  Just  come 
with  me!" 

So  he  took  Fo  Hi  by  the  arm,  and  led 
the  way  through  two  rooms,  which  were  so 
carefully  washed,  waxed,  and  set  in  order,  that 
they  might  have  been  taken  for  the  apart- 
ments of  some  old  maid.  Then  he  threw 
open  the  door  of  a  little  cabinet,  and 


THE  HAPP  Y  LE-III-  TO.  209 

exclaimed     triumphantly:     "Look!      Look ! " 

Fo  Hi  looked  with  all  his  eyes.  The 
cabinet  was  surrounded  with  large  panes  of 
glass  set  in  painted  wooden  frames,  and  on 
the  shelves  within,  which  rose  up  some  five 
or  six  feet  from  the  floor,  a  great  number 
of  shells  were  arranged  in  the  most  perfect 
order,  all  labelled  and  numbered.  In  the 
middle  of  the  room  was  a  little  table  on 
which  were  a  glue-pot,  some  little  slips  of 
paper,  a  pair  of  scissors,  some  thread,  some 
fragments  of  shell,  and  writing  materials. 

"  Bless  my  soul !  What's  all  this  ? "  asked 
Fo  Hi,  with  an  inquiring  look. 

"What's  this?"  replied  the  jolly  fellow, 
cheerily.  "Why,  this  is  my  collection  of 
shells.  What  do  you  think  of  it  ? " 

"  Oh !    it's    very    fine,    very    fine    indeed ! " 

said  Fo  Hi,  who   really  felt   very  little  inter- 

% 

est  in   the   matter. 

"You  would  better  say  that   it   is   the  very 
14 


210  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  ///. 

finest  in  China.  It  is  not  yet  quite  com- 
plete. But  I  am  adding  to  it  all  the  time, 
and  this  very  day,  my  friend,  this  very  day, 
see  the  priceless  treasure  which  I  have  suc- 
ceeded in  getting."  And  as  he  said  this, 
he  took  carefully  from  its  box  a  shell  in 
which  Fo  Hi  could  not  see  anything  peculiar. 
So  he  said  indifferently: 

"  What !     That  ?  " 

"  That ! "  exclaimed  Le-hi-to,  skipping 
about  gleefully.  "  That!  You  profane  fel- 
low! You  don't  know  that  that  is  one  of 
the  most  marvellous  shells  now  in  existence, 
and  that  probably  you  could  not  find  another, 
even  in  the  Imperial  Museum.  It  has  taken 
me  ten  years  to  find  that!  In  shells  of 
this  kind  there  are  usually  but  eight  reddish 
lines  traced  on  the  valve— you  understand, 
of  course,  the  valve  ?  There  are  a  few  with 

nine    lines,  and    a     very   few    have    ten.     Of 

« 
this   last  variety  I    own  two  specimens  which 


THE  HAPPY  LE-HI-TO.  211 

are  very  valuable.  But  this  one,  which  you 
have  so  contemptuously  called  that — look  at 
it,  my  dear  fellow,  and  count  them  for 
yourself! — this  one  has  eleven  lines !  The 
eleventh  is  undoubtedly  not  very  clear,  but 
it  is  there.  It  is  a  rare  treasure,  and  I 
would  not  take  a  thousand  crowns  for  it. 
The  famous  scholar,  Pont-cho-ki,  claims  to 
have  seen  one  in  which  as  many  as  twelve 
lines  were  visible.  The  one  thing  necessary 
to  complete  my  collection  is  one-  of  these 
shells  with  twelve  lines.  But  I  will  find  it. 
One  always  finds  what  one  looks  for.  Yes, 
even  if  I  have  to  dive  into  the  deepest  sea 
for  it,  that  shell  must  be  mine.  I  will  have 
it,  and  then  I  can  die  contented." 

"Do  you  intend  to  write  a  book  on  this 
subject  ?"  asked  Fo  Hi. 

"I?  Oh,  not  at  all!  I  should  like  to, 
but  I  could  not  find  the  time." 

"  Is   it  for   your   own  instruction,  then,  that 


212  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

you  are  putting  yourself  to  so  much  trouble  ? 
Are  you  searching  for  some  great  truth,  the 
key  to  which  lies  in  the  lines  of  these 
shells?" 

"  Not  in  the  least !  I  am  collecting  them 
for  the  sole  pleasure  of  having  the  finest 
collection  in  China.  You  see  by  the  empty 
spaces  that  I  still  lack  a  number  of  pieces  ? 
These  spaces  are  so  many  eye-sores  to  me, 
and  I  would  make  the  tour  of  the  world  to 
fill  them." 

"And  are  you  happy  ?"  asked  Fo  Hi, 
with  a  deeply  thoughtful  air. 

"Perfectly  happy!  Can  there  be  a  happier 
man  in  this  world  than  a  collector  of  shells  ? 
Just  you  begin  at  it  once,  and  you  will  say 
the  same  thing !  " 

"  Perhaps  he  is  right,"  said  the  young  man 
to  himself,  as  he  returned  home.  "  It  is  ab- 
solutely necessary  to  have  a  passion  and  an 
object  in  life.  A  passion  for  shells  is  cer- 


THE  HAPPY  LE-H1-TO.  213 

tainly  not  very  exalted,  and  their  collection 
is  not  a  very  useful  occupation.  But  even 
this  is  far  better  than  to  care  for  nothing 
and  to  do  nothing.  But  the  mischief  of  it 
is  that  you  can't  take  a  passion  as  you  can 
take  a  cold." 

Then  he  thought  over  all  the  things  which 
he  might  take  up  and  pursue  as  Le-hi-to 
pursued  the  collection  of  shells.  But  he 
could  think  of  nothing  which  was  to  his 
taste,  and  at  last  said  to  himself: 

"Ah !  the  best  thing  undoubtedly  would 
be  a  passion  for  one's  profession. " 

He  went  home  and  sat  down  in  a  corner 
near  the  fireplace.  The  dog-days  were  at 
their  height,  and  consequently  there  was  no 
fire  on  the  hearth. 

"What  a  miserable  season  of  the  year 
summer  is !  Fire  keeps  a  man  company, 
and  cheers  him  up.  When  one  hears  it 
flaming  and  crackling,  one  is  no  longer  alone. 


214  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

There  is  nothing  sadder  than  an  empty 
chimney,  an  empty  purse,  an  empty  heart, 
and  an  empty  life.  Nature  abhors  a 
vacuum." 

He  cast  his  eyes  about  him,  and  his  room 
had  never  seemed  so  large.  He  yawned 
wearily  two  or  three  times,  and  said: 

"  Really,  this  life  is  only  supportable  when 
there  are  two  to  bear  it!  When  God  put 
Adam  in  the  earthly  Paradise,  with  nothing 
to  do  but  to  walk  about,  the  first  thing  he 
did  was  to  supply  him  with  a  wife.'1 , 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

SHALL    I    THEN    GET    MARRIED  ? 

"  A  WIFE  ! "  Fo  Hi  repeated  to  himself. 
"A  wife!" 

And  immediately  the  fourth  command- 
ment of  his  code  flashed  before  his  mem- 
ory in  letters  of  fire : 

Refrain  from  wedlock  till    ihou'rt    gray, 
Nor  taste   of  love's   delicious   sweet. 

But  he  was  disposed  to  argue  the  mat- 
ter, and  went  on: 

"  And  why  not  ?  Why  should  I  be  de- 
barred from  the  only  true  happiness — I, 
who  need  it  more  than  anybody  ?  Two  un- 
happy wretches  together  might  make  a  very 
endurable  existence  of  it. 

"  I    should     have    near    me    a    being    who 

would  love   and    comfort  me,    and   divert  my 
(215) 


216  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

mind  from  my  troubles.  We  should  cling 
close  to  one  another,  so  as  to  carry  together 
the  burden  of  life.  Then  we  should  have 
children,  and  they  would  fill  the  room  with 
dhouts  and  kisses.  We  should  educate 
them,  and  our  lives  would  have  an  object. 
And  thus  at  last  I  should  learn  the 
pleasant  torture  of  hoping  and  fearing." 

This  idea  Fo  Hi  went  on  turning  over  in 
his  mind  for  a  long  time.  It  rose  and 
curled  about  in  the  air  with  the  smoke  of 
his  pipe.  He  conjured  up  a  charming  pict- 
ure of  his  future  happiness,  and  asked  him- 
self with  surprise  why  he  had  not  thought 
of  it  sooner.  He  had  been  invited  to  a  ball 
to  be  given  that  very  evening  by  His 
Honor  the  Governor  of  the  town.  So.  he 
spread  on  the  pomade  with  extra  care, 
and  put  on  his  full-dress  suit  embroidered 
with  silver,  for  which  he  had  paid  with  the 
happiness  of  his  life,  and  which  was  now  to 


SHALL  I  THEN  GET  MARRIED  ?  217 

repay  him  abundantly.  With  incomparable 
grace  and  ease,  he  made  his  entree  to  the 
Governor's  parlors.  A  large  number  of 
young  girls  in  white  and  rose-colored  dress- 
es were  ranged  in  two  rows  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  room  for  the  admiration  of  sus- 
ceptible young  men.  In  the  rear  the  moth- 
ers and  the  aunts  of  the  pretty  creatures 
formed  a  sombre  background.  Fo  Hi  passed 
along  between  this  double  row  of  marriage- 
able young  women,  without  the  slightest 
idea  of  the  emotions  which  he  was  exciting 
in  the  breasts  of  these  aunts  and  mothers. 

He  begged  one  of  the  young  ladies  to  be 
kind  enough  to  do  him  the  honor  to  dance 
with  him.  But  I  am  compelled  in  the  inter- 
est of  truth  to  say  that  he  chose  this  par- 
ticular one  for  the  sole  reason  that  she  was 
nearest  him  to  the  right.  I  know  very  well 
that  the  ladies  will  have  a  grudge  against 
my  hero  for  his  indifference  to  female  charms. 


218  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

But  it  can't  be  helped.  The  truth 
must  not  suffer.  Fo  Hi  was  not  a  very 
brilliant  dancer,  but  he  got  through  with  it 
at  last.  He  tried  to  be  very  witty,  and  he 
succeeded — or  at  least  he  thought  he  did. 
He  saw  the  young  lady's  lips  part  frequent- 
ly in  an  appreciative  smile,  and  he  had 
the  opportunity  to  notice  that  she  had  pretty 
teeth.  He  asked  the  privilege  of  the  next 
quadrille,  and  she  very  politely*  accepted  him 
for  the  seventeenth.  So  he  leaned  gracefully 
against  a  mantel  at  the  end  of  the  room,  to 
watch  her  more  at  his  ease  while  she  was 
dancing  the  intervening  sixteen.  Here  he 
was  standing,  lost  in  thought,  when  he  felt  a 
hand  laid  on  his  shoulder.  It  was  the  Con- 
troller, who  greeted  him  pleasantly,  and 
struck  up  a  conversation. 

"  Aha,  my  boy !  we  are  in  love,  are  we  ? 
Do  you  want  some  one  to  ask  her  hand 
for  you  ?  I  am  a  friend  of  the  family. 


SHALL  I  THEN  GET  MARRIED  ?  219 

Shall  I  speak  for  you  ?  No  ?  Ah !  I  see  you 
are  moving  cautiously.  Well,  I  wash  my 
hands  of  the  matter,  then !  There  is  nothing 
that  I  abominate  so  much  as  mixing  up  in 
other  people's  affairs.  I  only  warn  you  that 
your  esteem  for  the  young  lady  is  creating 
a  scandal.  Oh,  don't  be  alarmed !  I  mean 
in  the  good  sense  of  the  word.  That  is, 
it  is  all  the  talk  in  the  ball-room.  In  fact, 
they  are  already  talking  of  marriage.  Well, 
it  would  not  be  so  bad  a  bargain !  She  is 
pretty,  has  fine  blue  eyes,  and  a  small 
hand.  You  might  do  much  worse.  The 
family  stands  very  high  in  these  parts.  I 
know  her  father.  He  is  a  man  of  fortune, 
and  is  not  likely  to  live  long.  Just  think 
of  it!  A  beautiful  girl  and  a  hand- 
some dot !  On  the  whole,  it  isn't  so  bad  to 
take,  is  it  ?  All  right !  Come  along  and 
let  me  present  you  to  her  mother.  " 

Fo    Hi,  quite  *  deafened     by    this    flow    of 


220  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

speech,  was  unable  to  get  in  a  word.  He 
did  not  so  much  follow  his  self-imposed 
patron  as  he  allowed  himself  to  be  dragged 
along,  and  was  received  with  a  most  en- 
gaging smile  by  an  extremely  faded  old 
lady.  She  complimented  him  on  his  me- 
thodical habits,  which  were  so  well  known, 
and  told  him  that  nothing  in  the  world 
would  induce  her  to  give  her  daughter  to 
a  man  of  objectionable  character.  She  had 
always  dreamed  of  having  a  Government 
officer  for  a  son-in-law.  They  afforded  so 
many  guaranties  of  good  behavior  to  the 
family  into  which  they  had  the  honor  to  be 
admitted.  They  were  usually  economical, 
sensible,  domestic,  and  disinclined  to  wild 
and  adventurous  notions.  The  very  ardu- 
ousness  of  their  duties  necessitated  a  regular 
life,  without  which  happiness  was  quite  im- 
possible. They  had  a  settled  income,  and 
a  mother  could  die  in  peace  when  she  had 


SHALL  I  THEN  GET  MARRIED  ?  221 

confided  to  such  a  man  her  dearest  earthly 
treasure.  Wherever  they  went  they  com- 
manded respect,  and  there  was  no  greater 
happiness  in  store  for  a  young  woman  than 
that  of  entering  a  drawing-room  escorted  by 
a  splendid  blue  uniform  embroidered  with 
silver. 

As  Fo  Hi  listened  to  these  flattering 
words,  he  almost  burst  with  pride  and  sat- 
isfaction, and  forthwith  asked  leave  to  call 
upon  the  faded  old  lady.  The  next  day 
he  went,  and  two  days  after  he  went  again, 
and  then  fell  into  the  agreeable  habit  of 
going  every  evening.  Sorrow  and  ennui 
took  their  flight.  He  was  in  love.  Father, 
mother,  brothers,  and  even  the  house-dog, 
received  him  with  great  consideration.  The 
young  lady  herself,  alone,  no  longer  smiled 
upon  him,  although  her  mouth  still  con- 
tained those  thirty-two  bewitching  teeth. 
But  Fo  Hi  attributed  her  sadness  to  mod- 


222  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

esty,  and  made  his  proposals  to  her  father. 
The  Controller  had  talked  about  a  dowry  of 
twenty  thousand  taels,  but  the  father,  in  a 
very  magnificent  manner,  stipulated  for  but 
ten  thousand.  Fo  Hi  did  not  dare  to  ob- 
ject, although  his  plans  were  somewhat  dis- 
arranged by  this  reduction.  The  next  week 
it  was  intimated  that  he  would  receive  but 
one  half  the  amount  in  cash,  and  that  the 
income  of  the  remainder  would  be  paid  an- 
nually. Again  our  hero  submitted  without 
an  objection.  Then  five  or  six  days  later 
the  mother  declared  that  she  should  die 
if  she  were  to  be  separated  from  her 
daughter,  and  that  she  would  give  up  a 
part  of  her  house  to  the  young  couple 
and  the  rent  could  be  deducted  from  the 
income  of  the  dowry. 

"  Do  whatever  you  please,"  said  Fo  Hi, 
gallantly.  "I  am  too  happy  to  object_to  any- 
thing." 


SHALL  I  THEN  GET  MARRIED  ?  223 

"  Give  me  your  hand,  my  son-in-law,"  an- 
swered the  old  lady.  "  You  are  a  noble  fel- 
low, and  I  confide  to  you  my  daughter's 
happiness  without  the  least  fear." 

But  on  the  morning  of  the  day  on  which 
the  contract  was  finally  to  be  signed,  Fo 
Hi  received  a  call  from  a  young  man  whom 
he  did  not  know  but  whose  honest  face 
and  hearty  way  pleased  him  from  the  first. 

"  Sir,"  said  the  stranger,  "  I  am  about  to 
speak  of  a  very  delicate  matter,  and  I  en- 
treat you  to  take  it  in  good  part.  Do 
you  love  passionately  the  young  person 
whom  you  are  about  to  marry  ? " 

"  Why,  of  course,"  replied  Fo  Hi,  in 
amazement. 

"  That  is  unfortunate,  for  it  makes  my 
errand  so  much  the  more  painful.  I  will 
not  keep  you  in  suspense.  In  a  word,  the 
business  is  this :  I  also  am  in  love  with 
your  intended,  and  she  is  in  love  with  me." 


224  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

"What?     She  is   in    love   with  you?" 

"Yes,  and  she  has  been  for  a  long  time. 
Oh,  don't  be  uneasy !  She  is  as  chaste  as 
she  is  beautiful,  and  I  am  an  honorable 
man.  You  can  imagine,  sir,  what  a  blow 
to  me  is  this  approaching  marriage,  which 
is  to  destroy  all  my  hopes." 

"  But  why  have  you  never  proposed  to 
her  father  for  her?  I  have  not  stood  in 
your  way.  I  think — " 

"  Oh,  I  did  propose  to  him  a  long  time 
ago,  but  I  was  refused.  I  am  not  a  Gov- 
ernment officer,  sir;  that  was  the  mischief  of 
it.  I  had  not  the  right  to  wear,  like  you, 
the  livery  of  the  Public  Service.  We  both 
received  the  same  education,  but,  unlike 
you,  when  I  left  college  I  did  not  ask  a 
position  from  the  Emperor.  I  tried  to  make 
one  for  myself  by  hard  work.  There  were 
some  oil-wells  in  this  region  which  had 
been  allowed  to  fall  into  neglect.  These  I 


SHALL  I  THEN  GET  MARRIED?  225 

bought  very  cheap,  for  they  were  of  no 
value  in  their  neglected  condition.  I  re- 
opened and  worked  them,  and  the  result 
is  that  I  laid  the  foundations  of  a  new 
business,  which  will  add  to  the  wealth  of 
this  whole  country,  and  which,  I  have  great 
hopes,  will  also  some  day  make  me  a 
rich  man.  In  a  few  years  I  shall  have 
made  a  large  fortune,  and  will  then  be  able 
to  marry  to  my  taste,  without  anxiety  about 
the  amount  of  the  dot.  I  shall  simply  ask 
my  wife  to  bring  joy  and  domestic  bliss  to 
my  hearth.  Such,  sir,  were  the  thoughts 
with  which  I  consoled  and  encouraged  my- 
self. Well,  just  then  by  chance  I  met  the 
beautiful  creature  whose  eyes  have  con- 
quered you.  I  could  not  see  her  without 
loving  her.  I  asked  her  consent,  which  I 
hold  to  be  the  first  duty  of  every  hon- 
orable man,  and  she  graciously  gave  it. 

Then    I     went     to   her   family,   and    explained 
15 


226  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

my  position  and  my  hopes.  But  the  very 
arguments  which  I  thought  ought  to  plead 
for  me,  were  turned  against  me.  The  father 
was  averse  to  giving  his  daughter  to  a  mer- 
chant, and  the  mother  contended  that  fort- 
unes based  upon  trade  were  insecure,  and 
that  her  grandchildren  might  die  in  the 
work-house  for  all  that  she  knew.  Both  of 
them  declared  that  a  young  person  like 
their  daughter  was  not  fitted  to  apply  her- 
self to  the  details  of  business.  In  vain  did 
I  assure  them  that  she  should  have  no 
care  of  my  business,  except  so  far  as  she 
voluntarily  chose,  for  the  purpose  of  giv- 
ing employment  and  object  to  her  life. 
All  my  entreaties  and  even  my  tears 
were  in  vain.  I  had  to  withdraw.  Then  I 
heard  of  your  proposal,  and  my  first  im- 
pulse was  to  cut  your  throat.  But  I 
thought  over  it,  and  restrained  myself.  I 
determined  to  let  the  matter  pass  in 


SHALL  I  THEN  GET  MARRIED  ?  227 

silence;  and  that  silence  I  never  would 
have  broken,  believe  me,  if  I  had  not 
this  very  day  received  this  letter,  which 
I  beg  you  will  read." 

Fo  Hi  read  the  letter  with  great  agita- 
tion. The  young  lady  wras  his  betrothed. 
He  saw  clearly  that  she  did  not  love  him, 
and  that  she  was  being  married  to  him  by 
force,  and,  worse  still,  she  was  begging  anoth- 
er tp  take  any  necessary  means  to  hinder 
the  marriage  before  it  was  consummated. 

We  have  already  noticed  that  energy  of 
character  was  not  the  ruling  trait  of  our 
hero.  Trie  desperate  nature  of  the  situation, 
which  nerves  up  other  men,  was  calculated 
only  to  dishearten  him.  He  quickly  pict- 
ured to  himself  all  the  annoyances  of 
the  marriage  which  he  was  contemplating: 
a  wife  who  would  only  hate  him,  and  a 
dowry  which  would  not  be  paid,  the  tor- 
ment of  a  mother-in-law  with  whom  he 


228  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

would  be  obliged  to  live,  and  the  wretch- 
edness which  would  result  from  it  all. 

"  But  what  is  there  that  I  can  do  ? " 
he  exclaimed,  in  the  voice  of  a  man  who 
is  drowning  and  cries  out  for  a  rope. 

"Write  a  very  polite  letter  to  your  ex- 
pected father-in-law,  in  which  you  tell 

him whatever  you  please ;  that  his 

daughter  does  not  seem  to  be  very  eager 
to  marry  you,  and  that  you  are  afraid  you 
may  not  make  her  happy,  which  is  really 
the  truth." 

"  The  deuce  !  the  deuce !  "  growled  Fo  Hi, 
rubbing  his  ear.  But  the  young  man  fell 
on  his  knees,  and  urged  him  so  strongly, 
with  such  hearty  and  passionate  assurances 
of  eternal  gratitude,  that  our  hero  had 
not  the  heart  to  refuse.  So  he  wrote  the 
letter,  and  regretted  it  ten  minutes  after, 

when    it  was  too  late  to  recall  it. 

%t 

He    went     to     the   window    to  collect    his 


SHALL  I  THEN  GET  MARRIED?  229 

ideas  a  little,  and  as  he  looked  out  he  saw 
on  the  beach  a  very  pretty  young  woman 
who  was  gathering  the  shells  which  the 
waves  had  washed  up.  Her  dress  was 
tucked  up  to  her  knees,  exposing  her  well- 
made  limbs.  When  Fo  Hi  saw  her  he 
put  two  fingers  to  his  lips  and  gallantly 
threw  her  a  kiss,  to  which  bit  of  politeness 
the  young  woman  responded  with  a  loud 
laugh.  She  then  took  up  a  little  pebble 
and  roguishly  made  believe  to  throw  it  at 
him;  to  which  pretty  trick  Fo  Hi  respond- 
ed again  by  opening  his  coat  as  if  to  re- 
ceive it.  The  result  of  it  all  was  that  ten 
minutes  later  he  was  on  the  beach  in  full 
conversation  with  the  pretty  flirt.  He  dared 
not  offer  her  his  arm  in  open  daylight,  but 
he  said  he  would  be  extremely  pleased  if  she 
would  bring  him  some  shells  some  day  at 
dusk ;  and  after  giving  her  some  directions 
as  to  where  he  lived,  he  went  back  to  his 


230  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

room,  looking  about  stealthily  to  see  if  any 
one  had  observed  him.  But  this  little 
flirtation  cost  him  much  dearer  than  he 
thought.  For  he  was  observed ;  and  when 
the  father  of  his  intended  received  the  letter 
breaking  off  the  match  which  had  been  an- 
nounced everywhere  and  was  already  nearly 
concluded,  he  reported  in  the  town  that 
this  Fo  Hi  was  a  scamp,  who  was  leading 
a  very  scandalous  life,  and  that  he  had 
found  himself  compelled  at  the  last  moment 
to  refuse  him  his  daughter.  Fo  Hi  was 
accordingly  sent  for  by  the  Director-in-chief, 
and  asked  for  an  explanation  of  his  behav- 
ior. But  Fo  Hi  very  curtly  replied  that 
he  did  not  consider  that  the  Department 
had  any  right  to  inquire  into  the  motives 
of  an  act  which  affected  himself  alone.  He 
showed  by  a  very  strong  argument  that 
His  Honor  the  Director-in-chief  had  the 
right  of  control  only  over  the  heaps  of 


SHALL  I  THEN  GET  MARRIED  ?  231 

stones  and  not  over  the  marriages  of  his 
subordinates.  But  the  dignitary  retorted 
sharply:  "That  is  where  you  are  mistaken. 
I  am  the  father  of  my  subordinates.  I  am 
responsible  for  their  conduct,  and  whatever 
may  affect  their  character  affects  me — me, 
who  am  their  chief  and  representative.  I 
do  not  admit  the  subtle  distinction  which 
you  make  between  the  official  and  the 
man.  Bear  in  mind,  sir,  that  always  and 
everywhere  you  are  an  official.  It  is  an 
indelible  character  which  you  can  not  sep- 
arate from  yourself  like  a  cloak  which  you 
can  put  on  and  off  at  your  convenience. 
Every  step  which  you  take,  every  word 
which  you  speak,  reflects  upon  the  Depart- 
ment, and  I  must  give  an  account  of  it  to 
the  Emperor.  The  office  of  an  employee 
of  the  Government  is  a  sacred  thing — a 
fact  which  you  seem  too  often  to  forget. 
I  have  not  been  willing,  by  inflicting  pun- 


232  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  ///. 

ishment  immediately,  to  add  to  the  scan- 
dal which  you  have  already  caused  a  still 
greater  scandal.  But  if  I  am  lenient,  it  is 
not  for  your  sake,  for  you  scarcely  deserve 
bo  much  consideration,  but  for  the  sake  of 
a  respectable  family  whom  you  have  plunged 

into    sorrow     and      tears.     Go,     sir,    but    re- 

• 

member  that  the  Department  has  its  eye 
upon  you !" 

Fo  Hi  left  the  presence  of  the  Director 
very  much  crestfallen.  He  tried  to  console 
himself  for  this  terrible  rebuke  by  court- 
ing the  company  of  the  pretty  flirt  whom 
he  had  met  on  the  beach.  But  he  soon 
found  out  that  she  was  ignorant  and  ill- 
bred.  She  threatened  to  compromise  him, 
however,  if  he  jilted  her,  so  he  was  forced 
to  submit  to  her  odious  ways.  But  at  last 
he  revolted  against  this  intolerable  tyranny, 
and  after  a  painful  scene,  which  lasted  for 
two  hours,  left  her  forever.  She  followed 


SHALL  I  THEN  GET  MARRIED  ?          233 

him  to  his  apartments,  but  he  put  her  out 
of  doors.  Then  she  held  on  to  the  balus- 
trades and  screamed  at  the  top  of  her 
voice,  until  all  the  neighbors  were  aroused, 
and  a  large  number  of  people  ran  to  the 
spot  to  witness  this  lovers'  quarrel.  And 
this  last  development  did  the  business  for 
Fo  Hi.  Two  days  later  he  received  an  or- 
der of  transfer. 

It  was  the  fourth  time  in  six  years  that* 
he  had  changed  his  residence.  He  had 
come  to  such  a  pass,  however,  that  these 
changes  no  longer  disturbed  him.  The  life 
which  he  was  leading  was  so  insipid  and 
disgusting  to  him,  that  he  no  longer 
took  the  trouble  to  be  irritated  by  the 
misfortunes  with  which  it  was  so  thickly 
strewn.  He  was  like  the  negro  slave,  who 
has  no  ambition  to  exert  himself,  because  he 
has  no  power  to  change  his  fate. 

Fo    Hi    was    packing     his    trunk     for    the 


234  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

new  departure,  when  the  young  merchant 
who  had  taken  his  betrothed  from  him 
came  in: 

"Sir,"  he  said,  "I  owe  to  you  my  happi- 
ness. Your  withdrawal  has  compelled  the 
old  man  to  give  his  daughter  to  the  only 
son-in-law  available.  I  shall  never  forget 
the  service  which  you  have  done  me,  and 
I  am  here  to  acknowledge  it,  and  to  pay 
•  you  back,  if  I  can.  My  business  is  con- 
tinually extending  itself.  But  I  am  about 
to  advance  in  a  new  direction.  Thirty  leagues 
from  here  I  have  discovered  an'l  bought 
a  new  oil-well.  I  want  an  intelligent  and 
trustworthy  man  to  take  charge  of  it.  I 
will  take  you  into  partnership,  and  you 
can  make  your  own  fortune  while  helping 
me  to  make  mine/1 

"I  a  merchant!  I  sell  oil!"  shouted  Fo 
Hi. 

"  Oh,     I      beg    your     pardon ! "    said      the 


SHALL  I  THEN  GET  MARRIED?  235 

young  man,  with  a  shade  of  sarcasm  in 
his  voice.  "  I  beg  you  to  excuse  my  offer. 
I  see  very  clearly  that  it  was  improper/' 

For  a  single  moment  Fo  Hi  had  a 
strong  inclination  to  throw  himself  into  the 
young  fellow's  arms  and  cry : 

"No!  No!  Your  advice  is  that  of  a 
sensible  man  and  a  true  friend.  I  am  only 
a  proud  idiot,  a  miserable  fool  saturated 
with  ridiculous  prejudices.  Let  us  go  in- 
to the  oil  business  together,  and  par- 
don me  for  my  silliness."  But  a  petty 
sense  of  shame  held  him  back.  The  pre- 
cious opportunity,  which  he  ought  to  have 
seized,  slipped  by  and  falling  into  a  chair 
he  burst  into  tears.  But  he  quickly  re- 
covered himself  and  said :  "  Oh,  pshaw !  It's 
silly  to  weep.  That  never  cures  anything. 
Let's  get  the  trunk  packed  and  be  off.  I 
will  do  like  that  fellow  Le-hi-to.  I  will 
make  a  collection  of  shells ! " 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

IN    WHICH      FO      HI      MEETS     WITH    A    NEW     AD- 
VENTURE. 

Fo  Hi  found  once  more,  in  the  town  to 
which  chance  now  brought  him,  the  ever- 
lasting apartments  which  he  had  already 
seen  everywhere,  with  dirty  paper  on  the 
walls  and  second-hand  veneered  furniture. 
He  took  possession  of  them  with  a  heavy 
heart  and  some  such  thoughts  as  these: 

"  Just  think  of  it !  there  isn't  a  thing  here 
that  knows  me  or  cares  for  me !  Here  I 
come  like  a  traveller  to  a  hotel  which  he  has 
to  leave  the  very  next  day.  He  finds  no- 
where a  memory  or  a  thought  to  cheer  and 
console  him.  Everything  around  stares  indif- 
ferently and  vulgarly  at  him,  and  chills  him 
to  the  bone.  Yes,  in  this  room,  which  be- 
(236) 


A  NEW  ADVENTURE.  237 

longs  to  nobody  because  it  belongs  to  every- 
body, I  am  nothing  but  a  transient  guest, 
like  so  many  others  who  have  gone  before 
me  without  leaving  a  trace  of  themselves. 
It  will  be  just  so  with  me.  There  will  never 
be  a  single  radiant  spot  in  this  room  into 
which  I  can  put  a  part  of  my  heart  and 
life.  I  am  pitching  my  tent  here  to-day. 
To-morrow  I  shall  have  to  refold  it,  and 
not  a  thing  that  I  see  here  now  for  the 
first  time,  will  rise  up  to  hold  me  back  and 
cry  out :  '  Stay  with  us  !  Haven't  we  always 
been  good  friends  to  you  ?  Where  will  you 
find  a  more  comfortable  arm  chair  to  sleep 
in  and  to  think  of  your  sweetheart  ?  Don't 
you  remember  how  faithfully  this  secretary 
has  guarded  your  little  savings  ?  Where 
will  you  find  a  better  friend  and  a  wiser 
counsellor  ? ' — No ;  these  w^lls  upon  which 
generations  have  left  their  finger-marks,  this 
worn-out  and  broken  furniture  which  seems 


238  777^  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

to  be  yawning  with  listlessness  and  fatigue, — 
nothing  here  has  anything  to  say  to  me.  I 
could  remain  here  ten  years,  and  still  be 
nothing  but  a  stranger.  Government  officers 
are  the  nomads  of  civilization,  and  the  only 
home  which  a  nomad  has  is  that  which  he 
carries  around  on  the  back  of  his  pack- 
horse. 

"And  you,  my  poor  trunk,"  he  went  on 
again,  as  he  was  undoing  the  straps  of  his 
luggage,  "are  my  only  faithful  friend.  Old 
and  dilapidated  as  you  are,  I  still  love  you. 
We  have  never  forsaken  one  another.  You 
recall  to  my  mind  my  father's  house,  from 
which  I  started  out  with  you,  young,  hand- 
some, and  beaming,  and  then  again  the  many 
journeys  which  we  have  made  together 
since.  I  have  no  doubt  we  shall  make 
many  more,  but  I  shall  not  mind  them  so 
much  if  you  go  with  me.  When  I  raise 
your  lid,  it  seems  to  me  that  I  can  see  all 


A  NEW  AD  VENTURE.  239 

the  memories  of  my  life  thronging  out  of 
you.  They  stream  before  my  eyes,  and  I 
find  a  melancholy  pleasure  in  surveying 
them.  You  are  the  one  point  in  this  room 
at  which  my  past  joins  on  to  my  present 
life." 

The  town  to  which  Fo  Hi  had  this  time 
been  sent  was  situated  in  the  extreme  south 
of  the  Empire.  The  minds  of  the  inhab- 
itants, heated  by  the  fierce  rays  of  a  tropical 
sun,  were  naturally  passionate,  and  more 
than  once  terrible  quarrels,  in  which  much 
blood  was  shed,  had  arisen  over  matters  of 
religion.  The  bonzes  and  fakirs  were  the  ab- 
solute rulers  of  the  district,  and  there  never 
was  a  more  jealous  and  insolent  dynasty. 
They  had  organized  a  vast  association,  partly 
lay  and  partly  clerical,  membership  in  which 
was  intended  to  be  the  only  alternative  to 
death  by  impalement  or  fire.  The  society 
was  named  after  the  great  Pa-o-li,  one  of 


240  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

the  most  illustrious  fakirs  of  China.  It  was 
founded  under  the  pretext  of  assisting  the 
poor  and  the  sick,  but  was  secretly  working 
to  undermine  the  power  of  the  Emperor, 
whom  it  hated,  because  on  his  accession  he 
had  said  that  he  should  keep  the  priests 
well  in  check  and  compel  them  to  keep  their 
place  as  citizens  and  subjects.  This  priestly 
association  therefore  hated  him  cordially, 
although  it  did  not  scorn  to  make  use  of 
him  whenever  it  was  advantageous  to  do 
so.  It  acknowledged  but  one  master — the 
Grand  Lama,  who  claimed  to  be  God's  rep- 
resentative on  earth.  From  him  it  received 
its  watchword,  and  accepted  it  with  implicit 
obedience.  Its  members  mutually  sustained 
one  another,  and  persecuted  with  relentless 
hatred  all  who  did  not  belong  to  the  soci- 
ety, whether  they  were  merely  indifferent  to 
it  or  open  enemies.  They  had  adopted  as 
their  motto  the  celebrated  saying  of  a  cer- 


A  NEW  ADVENTURE.  241 

tain  sage,  "  He  who  is  not  with  me  is 
against  me,"  and  unfortunately  for  those  who 
were  guilty  of  the  folly  of  standing  in  op- 
position to  it,  it  launched  against  them  its 
infallible  curse.  All  expedients  were  allow- 
able to  compass  the  ruin  of  these  heretics. 
When  the  judges  could  not  be  influenced 
against  them  and  their  destruction  thus  be 
accomplished  at  a  blow,  they  were  sur- 
rounded by  an  invisible  net  of  injurious 
insinuations  and  petty  annoyances,  and  were 
thus  gotten  rid  of  gradually,  by  slow  and 
gentle  but  no  less  irresistible  means.  These 
religionists  had  great  power  over  the  Gov- 
ernment employees,  whom,  in  fact,  they  ad- 
vanced or  discharged  at  their  pleasure. 

Fo  Hi  was  not  slow  to  discover  this  state 
of  things.  He  had  never  professed  hostility  to 
religion.  He  held  that  one  should  respect 
the  religious  views  of  others,  even  if  he 

lived   up    to    his   own   imperfectly.      But   our 
16 


242  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  ///. 

hero  was  endowed  with  a  certain  contrariness 
of  disposition  which  led  him  inevitably  to 
take  views  exactly  the  opposite  of  those 
which  were  being  forced  upon  him.  Now 
lie  had  no  sooner  arrived  in  the  country 
than  he  was  seized  with  a  burning  desire 
to  break  lances  with  the  bonzes  and  their 
party.  He  was  never  seen  at  any  of  the 
religious  ceremonies,  and  he  allowed  no  op- 
portunity to  escape  of  assailing  those  whom 
he  called  bigots  and  hypocrites.  When  he 
was  warned  of  the  risk  which  he  was  run- 
ning, he  replied :  "  What  have  I  to  fear  ? 
Are  not  these  people  the  furious  enemies  of 
the  Emperor  who  pays  me  and  to  whom  I 
have  sworn  obedience  ?  I  hate  them,  of 
course,  but  is  it  not  my  duty  to  hate  them  ? 
Is  it  not  the  duty  of  every  loyal  citizen  to 
detest  them  ?  If  they  dared  to  attack  me 
should  I  not  be  protected  by  the  name  of 
the  Emperor,  whose  cause  I  am  maintaining 


A  NE  W  AD  VENTURE.  243 

« 

against  his  bitterest  and  most  implacable 
enemies  ? " 

You  see  Fo  Hi  was  still  very  youthful  in 
his  views.  He  was  always  imagining  that  it 
is  logic  which  governs  the  world.  He  had 
no  idea  that  the  agents  of  the  Emperor 
would  be  the  first  to  denounce  and  sacrifice 
him,  and  that  the  Emperor  would  never 
know  anything  about  it.  But  the  catastrophe 
came  much  more  quickly  than  even  old 
Li-jou-lin  could  have  predicted. 

The  Society  of  Pa  o-li  had  made  arrange- 
ments for  a  great  public  procession  to  the 
temple  of  Ja-ghi,  for  the  purpose  of  invok- 
ing the  blessings  of  Heaven  upon  the  per- 
secuted Grand  Lama.  But  by  whom  was  he 
persecuted  ?  No  one,  of  course,  would  say, 
although  it  was  everybody's  secret.  All  the 
Government  officers  received  an  invitation  to 
honor  this  religious  demonstration  with  their 
presence.  It  was  an  invitation  and  a  com- 


244  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

mand  in  one.  Fo  Hi  could  not  have  had 
a  better  opportunity  to  display  his  blue 
uniform  embroidered  with  silver.  But  he 
was  exasperated  against  the  bonzes.  So  he 
refused  to  attend,  and  did  not  even  take  the 
trouble  to  offer  an  excuse  for  the  refusal. 
But  he  did  still  more.  He  .stationed  himself 
insolently  in  full  view  of  the  procession  and 
watched  it  with  a  proud  and  scornful  coun- 
tenance. 

When  the  procession  reached  the  temple 
of  Ja-ghi,  one  of  the  priests  mounted  a 
platform,  and  drawing  from  his  pocket  a 
great  roll  of  paper  proceeded  to  read  a  ful- 
some and  violent  discourse,  in  which  the 
Emperor  himself  was  roundly  abused.  As 
Fo  Hi  listened  to  the  disloyal  words  of  the 
speaker,  he  fairly  boiled  with  wrath  and  in- 
dignation. He  could  no  longer  contain  him- 
self, and  springing  to  his  feet  suddenly  in 
the  midst  of  a  profound  pause,  he  shouted 


A  NEW  AD  VENTURE.  245 

at   the    top   of   his   voice,    like    a    blast    from 
the   last   trump  :    "  It's  an    infamous   lie  ! " 

This  of  course  threw  the  whole  assembly 
into  indescribable  confusion.  But  Fo  Hi  re- 
mained standing,  with  a  bold  and  aggressive 
look.  He  did  not,  however,  remain  long, 
for  the  police  rushed  upon  him  and  secured 
him,  and  took  him  off  to  the  lock-up.  His 
trial  was  conducted  with  surprising  dispatch, 
for  he  had  to  do  with  men  who  never 
allow  a  revenge  to  loiter,  except  when  they 
can  not  effect  it  otherwise.  He  was  unani- 
mously condemned  and  sentenced  to  be  im- 
paled. And  now  the  prisoner  was  seen  to 
take  out  his  note-book  and  write  something 
in  it,  which  was  found  to  be  this  maxim, 
with  which  his  decalogue  was  at  last  com- 
pleted : 

Before   the   priests   thy  offering  lay 
Of  worship   that  to    God  is   meet. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

IN    WHICH     FO    HI     IS     NOT    EXECUTED. 

THE  presiding  judge  asked  Fo  Hi  if  he 
had  anything  to  say  why  the  sentence 
should  not  be  enforced.  To  which  formal 
question  he  replied : 

"  Yes,  your  Honor.  I  am  a  Government 
officer,  and  I  claim  all  the  rights  which 
this  title  gives  me.  My  position  gives  me 
the  right  to  be  impaled  on  a  stake  of  gold, 
and  I  believe  that  this  demand  can  not  be 
refused." 

The  judges  thereupon  retired  to  their  pri- 
vate apartment  to  deliberate,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  returned  to  their  places  on  the 
bench. 

"Prisoner  Fo  Hi,"  said  the  Chief-Judge, 
"  however  unworthy  you  have  shown  your- 
self of  the  privilege  which  the  law  accords 
(246) 


FO  HI  IS  NOT  EXECUTED.  247 

you?  we  do  not  wish  to  deprive  you  of  it. 
You  shall  have  the  honor  of  being  impaled 
upon  the  golden  stake,  with  the  usual  solem- 
nities." 

Now  this  method  of  execution  was  one 
of  the  finest  ceremonies  of  which  China  has 
preserved  the  memory.  Fo  Hi  was  arrayed 
in  his  blue  uniform  embroidered  with  silver, 
and  marched  to  the  place  of  execution  with 
as  much  serenity  of  manner  as  he  would 
have  gone  to  a  ball  at  the  Governor's. 

The    drums    beat    the   march,   and  bands    of 

* 

music,  stationed  along  the  route,  filled  the 
air  with  martial  music.  The  crowd  was 
enormous,  and  the  platforms  which  had 
been  erected  for  the  occasion  were  filled 
with  the  most  beautiful  ladies  of  the  town, 
who  were  dressed  in  all  their  finery  as  if 
for  a  fete. 

All  this  splendor  was  calculated  to  flatter 
the  vanity  of  Fo  Hi;  but  as  he  caught 


248  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

sight  of  the  stake  in  the  distance,  rising  up 
in  the  public  square,  he  was  disturbed  by 
some  reflections  which  were  not  so  gay  as 
they  might  be. 

"  What  strange  ideas  my  father  must  have 
had,"  he  thought,  "to  make  a  Government 
officer  of  me!  Ah!  if  they  ever  catch  me 
again !  But  come,  come !  No  weakness. 
Everybody  is  looking  at  me."  He  pushed 
back  his  hair,  and  went  on  resolutely  and 
smilingly.  As  he  was  passing  along  he 
overheard  a  civilian  in  the  crowd  saying  to 
his  neighbor : 

"What  lucky  fellows  these  Government 
officials  are  to  be  impaled  on  such  a  splen- 
did instrument !  Such  luck  will  never  fall 
to  us  poor  wretches !  They  wouldn't  show 
so  much  ceremony  in  putting  us  out  of  the 
way !  " 

This  envious  speech  gave  poor  Fo  Hi  a 
great  deal  of  satisfaction;  but  it  was  the 


FO  HI  IS  NOT  EXECUTED.  249 

last  satisfaction  he  was  to  get  out  of  the 
imposing  ceremony.  For  he  was  already  in 
the  hands  of  the  executioner,  when  a  horse- 
man was  seen  approaching  at  furious  speed, 
shaking  a  paper  in  his  hand,  and  shouting : 
"  Pardon  !  Pardon  !  " 

"Come,  come  !  Hurry  up,  my  *  friend  !  " 
said  the  bonze,  who  acted  as  Master  of 
Ceremonies,  to  the  executioner.  "  We  are 
not  here  to  trifle  away  our  time." 

But  Fo  Hi  was  in  no  haste  to  be  done 
for,  and  managed  to  delay  the  proceedings 
until  the  horseman  reached  the  square.  It 
turned  out  to  be  Pe-ka-o,  who  brought  a 
pardon  signed  by  the  Emperor  himself.  And 
Fo  Hi  fell  into  his  arms,  quite  beside  him- 
self with  joy. 

"  How  on  earth  did  you  do  it  ? "  he 
asked,  when  they  were  once  more  alone. 
Pe-ka-o  then  told  him  that  he  had  come  to 
be  one  of  the  great  landholders  of  the  Em- 


250  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

pire,  and  that  he  was  in  a  fair  way  to 
be  Minister  of  Agriculture  some  day. 
He  said  that  he  saw  the  Emperor  frequent- 
ly, and  was  consulted  by  him  on  a  number 
of  subjects.  As  soon  as  he  heard  of  the 
conviction  of  his  brother-in-law  he  went 
directly  to  the  palace.  There  he  had  been 
received  by  the  Emperor,  who  said  to  him 
that  he  could  refuse  him  nothing. 

"What!     the     Emperor     can     refuse     you 
nothing  ?  "  asked    Fo    Hi. 

"  Well,   he  said   so,   at   any   rate." 
"  So  much  the  better !     You  shall  ask  him 
to   give   me   an   appointment ! " 


EPILOGUE  AND   DECALOGUE. 

THE  family  of  Fo  Hi  was  thus  reunited 
once  more  after  so  many  years,  and  now 
the  young  official  was  quite  dazzled  by  the 
luxury  with  which  he  found  his  father  sur- 
rounded. His  two  brothers-in-law  also  had 
become  very  rich,  and  were  authorized  to 
wear  three  coral  buttons  on  their  caps.  But 
between  themselves  they  smiled  at  these 
distinctions,  which  really  bring  with  them 
no  happiness.  They  were  prouder  of  their 
children,  who  were  growing  up  about  them 
like  so  many  rosebuds,  than  they  would 
have  been  of  all  the  coral  buttons  in  the 
world,  The  oldest  of  these  little  treasures 
was  now  ten  years  of  age;  and  as  Fo  Hi, 
junior,  passed  his  hand  over  the  boy's  hair, 

he   said    gayly : 

(250 


252  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

"  We  will  make  an  official  of  this  little 
fellow ! " 

"  No,  thank  you ! "  exclaimed  the  young- 
ster's mother.  "  I  don't  care  to  have  him 
impaled." 

"Tut!  tut!  my  girl,"  said  Fo  Hi,  senior, 
who  was  not  yet  cured  of  his  pld  notions. 
"It  is  a  great  thing  to  be  impaled  on  a 
golden  stake  to  the  sound  of  martial 
music!" 

Fo  Hi,  junior,  also  promised  that  he 
would  give  his  nephew  the  benefit  of  the 
experience  which  had  cost  him  so  dear,  and 
would  thus  smooth  the  way  for  the  young 
aspirant  for  political  honors.  "I  have,"  said 
he,  "reduced  the  principles  of  conduct  in  the 
Public  Service  to  ten  rules,  which  are  to  be 
learned  by  heart,  and  are  always  to  be  ob- 
served." 

"I  should  like  to  know  what  they  are," 
said  Li-jou-lin. 


EPILOGUE  AND  DECALOGUE.  253 

The  young  man  accordingly  drew  a  paper 
from  his  pocket  and  read  aloud  his  code 
of  conduct  as  follows: 

I. 

To  thy  superiors  homage  pay, 

And  them  profoundly   do    thou   greet. 

It 

All   those  who    are   beneath    thy    sway 
Harshly   and  mercilessly   treat. 

III. 

No   zeal   nor   energy  display, 
Nor   work   with   unbecoming  heat. 

IV. 

Refrain  from  wedlock  till  thou'rt  gray, 
Nor   taste  of  love's  delicious  sweet. 

V. 

Temper   thy   taste   for  all  things   gay' 
Be   in  indulgences  discreet. 

VI. 

Let  bread   and   water  be   thy  stay, 
Nor  rice-wine  cause  unsteady   feet. 


254  THE  MISERIES  OF  FO  HI. 

VII. 

All  public  wishes   disobey, 

And   practice   even   the   courts  to   cheat. 

VIII. 

With   every   change  of  rulers,   say 
New   oaths,   their  favors   to   entreat. 

IX. 

Before   the  priests   thy   offering  lay 
Of  worship   that  to   God  is   meet. 

X. 

Think   thou   of  nothing   night   or  day, 
But   thy    advancement   to    complete. 

"Very  good,  indeed,"  said  Li-jou-lin,  when 
the  young  man  stopped  reading;  "but  in- 
stead of  these  ten  rules,  I  will  give  you 
one  which  is  worth  them  all." 

"What  is  it?  What  is  it?"  they  all 
shouted  together. 

"Keep   out   of  office;    and  thus  may 
Thy  years   in    independence    fleet." 

And  assuredly  this  old  Li-jou-lin  was  no 
fool! 


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